


634 years, 6 months.

by snusnu95



Series: The Ryders [2]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Adventure, Bisexual Sara Ryder, Default Ryder twins, ENFP Sara, ENTJ Scott, End game/post game, F/M, Family Drama, Non Pathfinder Sara Ryder, Pathfinder Scott Ryder - Freeform, Romance, Sara is a dork, Scott is a bit of a hardass, Scott likes turian ladies, Sibling Rivalry, Slow Burn, Some canon divergence (though not a lot)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2018-12-05 09:49:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 53,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11575578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snusnu95/pseuds/snusnu95
Summary: 634 years and 6 months; that's when Sara Ryder begins her journey in Andromeda. Little does she know that the hardships are far from over, the 'hard work' may be done but there's plenty to come as Sara begins to learn to live and function in Andromeda's harsh environments. She comes to learn Andromeda changes people - and she is not exempt.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> So this fic was an 'idea' that spawned into 27,000 words. Basically, I played two playthroughs of Mass Effect: Andromeda - one as default Sara and one as default Scott. I preferred Scott as the pathfinder, as it gives Sara more freedom to do something like this. 
> 
> This is a Sara/Jaal fic, with Scott/Vetra in the background.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaal learns that Sara Ryder is quite different to her brother, and he is excited for when she wakes up.

**Jaal POV**

The crew of the Tempest were gathered in the gallery; finishing off one of Drack’s stews. Jaal however was eating his usual diet of paste; he couldn’t comprehend why the others wasted precious resources on food – especially since their resources were more limited than the angara. But, Jaal realised it did raise morale.

The Pathfinder had ducked out to run some errands which included vidcalls, so the rest of the crew were chatting while consuming their stew – Scott’s still sitting full on the table. Eventually, and Jaal wasn’t sure how it happened, the conversation ended up at Scott’s sister, Sara Ryder.

“You’re the only one here that’s met her,” Liam said to Cora, “what’s she like?”

“She’s…” Cora paused as if in thought, “she’s Scott’s better half.”

Jaal looked up from his paste in interest and sat up a little straighter.

Cora continued, “She’s very personable. Sara brings out the best in everyone, especially Scott.”

“Wait…Scott has a good side?” Liam joked, and Jaal caught Vetra’s quick glare.

Cora laughed along with Liam, “Sara brings out a very jokey side to him. For instance, I caught them wrestling like kids once because they both wanted a particular gun for target practice.”

“Wrestling?” Kallo asked in disbelief, “the Pathfinder? Wrestling?”

“Yes. They were on the ground. The gun was laying a few feet away, forgotten.”

“Who was winning?” Peebee asked eagerly.

“Sara, naturally.”

Vetra snorted with laughter and the rest of the crew followed suit just as Scott entered the gallery. He looked up from his datapad in confusion as Vetra handed him a bowl of stew.

“What did I miss?” he asked, placing the datapad down and attacking his stew hungrily.

“Oh nothing lovely,” Vetra chuckled and wiped a tear from her eye. Scott looked up with a mouthful of food in anticipation of an explanation.

“Just hearing all about you and Sara,” Suvi answered and Scott swallowed audibly.

“How did…? SAM?”

“I did not say anything Pathfinder,” the AI replied innocently.

“Ohhh,” Scott put it all together, and rounded on Cora, “it was that time wasn’t it?”

“The time Sara had you in a headlock and was holding your amp? Yes.”

The crew was silent for a few beats but then roared with laughter. Liam was pounding his fist on the table and Gil had tears streaming down his face. Scott remained straight-faced, only the corner of his mouth twitching upward.    

“Sara sounds great at parties; I can’t wait to meet her!” Liam said,

“I agree,” Jaal nodded along.  

“She has to have a quad to be able to disable your biotics,” Drack declared.  

“She’s a lot of fun, I think you’ll all love her,” Scott agreed, “her interests include archaeology and technology so I think you’ll get along great with her Peebee.”

“Oh, really? Exciting!” Peebee looked up from her omni-tool.  

“When she’s awake and if she’s okay with it; you can all visit. I’m sure she will be fine with it. Sara’s a people-person, she’d love the company,” Scott explained, placing down his now empty bowl of stew.

Jaal never thought he’d be so excited to meet Scott’s sister. To meet a Ryder that wasn’t like the logical and often cold man in front of him sounded almost too good to be true.

The crew dispersed, leaving Gil and Suvi on dishwashing duty. Jaal got to his feet and made his way back to the tech lab, settling in to once again pulling his rifle apart. Jaal couldn’t wait to meet Sara. He hoped her interest in technology extended to weapon modifications. But, he also wanted new company to change the dynamics of the very small crew.

She had been in a coma for months; it was only a matter of time before she woke up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not quite sure where this is going, but I hope y'all like it! Turns out some of these characters are so tough to get right!


	2. Awake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara wakes up, and meets some of the Tempest's crew

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya everyone here's the official chapter 1! A few notes; I don't have a beta but I've done a read through of this chapter several times and I'm happy with it but I'm hoping I don't spot a sneaky error. Secondly, I work full time AND go to university so I apologise if chapter updates are slow. I have 25,000 words written I just need to sit and sort it all. The story at this point will stay in Sara's POV or sometimes will be in Scott's POV. 
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

Sara Ryder woke with a gasp to blinding white light.

 _I must be dead_.

But death shouldn’t burn holes in her retinas; it was supposed to be painless. She sent the signal to her arm to shield her eyes, but nothing happened. She was aware her arm existed, she could _feel_ it; it just wouldn’t obey her, and hung uselessly at her side. A strange moan was coming from somewhere and she wished it would stop.

“Ryder! Hey! She’s awake!”

The words were distinguishable but felt as though she was hearing them from far away in a very long tunnel. The strange moan continued.

“Ryder can you hear me?” the same voice, although slightly more in focus. The room also had begun to change from piercing white into recognizable shapes and colours. White on grey on white.

“Shh, Sara, you’re okay!” another voice called, and with a jolt she realised the horrible noise was coming from her. Once she was aware of it, it stopped but still bounced around her skull.  

A dark skinned man stood over her, shining a light into her eyes with another woman standing at her side. Sara squinted in response, she sent the signal and her hand snapped to attention, “yikes!” she croaked.

Using her left arm, she pushed herself into a sitting position, and felt the man’s hands rest on her shoulders, as if to steady her. She saw the rows of beds on the other side of the giant med-bay, and the nameless and slightly blurred people looking in her general direction.

“Where am I?” her voice crackled from disuse.

The man smiled reassuringly, “you’re in the medical bay of ark Hyperion. We’re in Andromeda. My name is Dr Harry Carlyle.”

“Okay, okay,” Sara shook her head slightly as if trying to rid her ears of water; everything was still a bit fuzzy, “what’s going on?”

Harry eyed someone that Sara couldn’t see before looking to her, “I don’t know how much you remember of what your brother told you but your revival procedure was interrupted, you’ve been in a coma ever since.”

The mention of Scott bought pressing matters into her head, “where’s Scott? Where’s my Dad?”

She had anticipated that Scott would be at her bedside. In fact her current fantasy was him sobbing over her lifeless body but she knew that was wishful thinking. Scott was nowhere near that outwardly emotional or ridiculous. Alec was obviously out doing something important, he was the pathfinder after all, and Scott was likely with him.

“Sara…” Harry replied in a gentle tone.

“I’m honestly surprised Dad hasn’t come to speak to me, he has SAM implants too,” Sara said, looking around expectantly as if Alec was going to jump out from behind a corner.

“Sara,” Harry said more firmly this time. She knew something was wrong, Harry couldn’t meet her eyes.

“…where are they?” panic set into her voice.

“Alec is…”

“Oh god,” Sara realised before Harry could mutter the words, “that’s why he didn’t…he’s…”

“Alec Ryder is dead,” Harry mumbled, “I’m so sorry.”  

Hearing the words aloud make it final, absolute.

“But…but,” Sara replied, still completely aware of people looking at her, “but Scott said…”

“He lied,” Harry said simply, still not meeting her eyes.  

Sara stared at her lap, unable to fathom why Scott would lie to her, “right…” she tried to ease her sudden pain with her first line of defence, humour, “maybe I’ll ask him while we sit, have drinks and take the view in on Habitat 7.”

“Yeah…that was a lie too,” Harry rubbed his neck awkwardly.

“ _What_?” Sara couldn’t hide the venom from her voice.

“Habitat 7 was a bust.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Sara spat out.

“Whoa,” the doctor snapped at her, and she glared at him.

“So he lies about my father AND the planet! Great work Scott, real great,” her voice cracked, and she folded her arms.

“I’m sure he has a reason.”

“It better be a good one.”

Harry flinched at her statement and continued with his medical mumbo-jumbo of checking Sara’s vitals. She batted him away and swung her legs over the bed. Her aching muscles felt as though she hadn’t moved in a very, very long time.

“How long have I been out?”

“Six months, plus the 634 years in stasis,” Harry commented.

“Well, shit,” Sara responded, astounded she had been unconscious for so long. Six months…six months she had believed her father to be alive when he wasn’t. Six months she had believed they had found a home.

And that’s when he walked in.

Scott Ryder.

He was exactly as she remembered him; his sleek brown hair, his pathetic stubble, and his piercing blue eyes that were the same as hers. He was donned in the Initiative gear but it was dyed black with a black and purple jacket. Scott looked slightly red in the face as though he had run here.

 _Don’t be ridiculous Sara, he wouldn’t have run here to see you._  

His eyes met hers, and what looked like the weight of a galaxy left his shoulders.

“Sara,” he said, and stepped forward holding out his arms. Her anger bubbled over, and she folded her arms and looked away from him. She saw him lower his arms in defeat, and then she couldn’t contain it. Her lip trembled, and her tear ducts decided that right now was a great time to release, and fat tears rolled down her cheeks.

She gritted her teeth against her grief, “why did you lie to me?” she tried to sound angry, but her voice sounded breathless instead. Scott hovered for a moment, as if trying to decide on what to do.

“I’m so sorry Sara,” he sat down next to her on the bed, “I couldn’t tell you…not like that. You looked so peaceful, and I was so worried.”

“For so long I really believed Dad was alive, and now it makes sense why I have no memory of him coming to speak to me,” Sara’s shoulders were shaking, and her throat was catching with sobs. Scott’s arm curled around her shoulders, and she accepted his embrace, placing her head on his chest.

“It’s been a mess,” Scott hummed, “I’ve been worried sick about you. I wanted to try to talk to you again, but SAM was worried that it would be too dangerous. And…”

“And you’d already lied,” Sara finished for him, “you’ve would’ve had to explain where Alec was. I know you’re looking out for me, but I’m a big girl Scott, I can take care of myself.”

“Noted,” Scott replied.

“I bet Cora’s enjoying her promotion,” Sara snorted as she removed herself from Scott’s embrace, and they settled somewhat more formally. Sara wiped her nose with her sleeve, hoping no one noticed.

“Well, about that. I ended up being pathfinder.”

“What the-?” Sara replied in shock.

“Yeah, I was pretty gobsmacked about it too.”

They sat in silence for a few beats.

“How did Dad die?”

Scott looked around, and lowered his voice slightly, “On Habitat 7. Long story short, Dad had activated this freaky alien technology and he and I were standing and looking at his handiwork, then the tech sort of…exploded. Dad and I were flung from the platform. My helmet smashed, and I was suffocating and well…he gave his life for me.”

Sara was silent for a moment, trying to rationalise Alec’s decision, “I didn’t think he was capable of something like that.”

“Me either.”

Sara felt the tears bubble to the surface again, “I never got to see him here. I never got to say goodbye to him.”

“He was proud of you,” Scott replied, “and he was so worried about you.”

“Bullshit he was,” Sara retorted bitterly.

“I heard his audio logs from before we set out to Habitat 7, he was worried about you,” Scott confirmed sternly.

“Did he come and visit me before you went out?” Sara snapped and Scott opened his mouth to speak, but fell silent, “that’s what I thought.”

They sat in silence for a while again.

“Also…alien tech?” Sara asked curiously.

“Yeah!” Scott sounded relieved for a different conversation avenue, “We’ve been running around the entire cluster activating it, could’ve used you.”

“I need to see this! Let’s go!” Sara stood in one fluid moment, but her knees buckled. Scott grabbed her to support her frame.

“Whoa whoa,” Harry entered here, “you’re not fit for duty ma’am, I can’t let you go anywhere.”

“You can’t just wave alien tech in my face and not expect me to go!”  

“All in good time,” Harry tried to be gentle as he helped Scott lower her to the bed. She pouted as she sat back down, with Scott taking his place next to her.

“You can chat for a while, but no arm wrestling!” Harry called as he walked off to attend other patients. Sara rolled her eyes at him, and Scott chuckled under his breath.

“So, what else do you do beside activate freaky alien tech?” Sara asked, curious as to exactly what Scott had gotten up to. Now that she was taking a closer look at him he looked noticeably older with bags under his eyes and a muted expression on his face.

“Sort through diplomatic nonsense, try to play peacekeeper, organise colonies,” Scott explained, “the usual bullshit. I like it though, and I think I’m going okay.”

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Sara agreed, “you’ve got good people yeah?”

“The team is amazing; you’re going to meet every single one of them in good time,” Scott said, “I think you’ll like my crazy asari ground team member.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” Scott confirmed, “she’s feisty and independent and absolutely loves the tech we’ve been finding, she comes with me to every vault.”  

“Speaking of the freaky alien tech – did you find any freaky aliens?”

“Which ones? The remnant are part of the tech we keep finding but we don’t think they’re the creators of it. The kett are an explanation for another day and there’s also the angara. We’ve got one on our crew.”

“They nice?”

“Very…outwardly emotional. I thought you were bad, you’ve got nothing on these guys.”

Sara thwacked him softly on the arm, “I’m only awake ten minutes and you’re already giving your sister a hard time.”

“That’s what I’m for,” Scott gave a lopsided smile and Sara chuckled, but they then fell into an uneasy silence once more, “I missed you Sara,” Scott said quietly.

“Me too,” she replied.

“We’re here for a week as we organise supplies, and I have to speak to the Initiative director and go to a few meetings. I really would prefer to be facing down an architect over speaking to Tann.”

“Garson not director?”

“She’s dead,” Scott confirmed, “never woke up.”

“Well, shit,” Sara said, unable to think of anything more intelligent to say.

“Tann’s…I prefer the people under him; Kesh and Kandros are fantastic and you should say hello to them when you’re feeling better. Speaking of, I’ll try to come round here as much as I can.”

“Aw, don’t worry Scott,” Sara dismissed casually but inside she wanted her brother to be around as much as possible, “I know you’ve got more important stuff to do.”

“You’re important,” Scott argued, settling the matter, “I’ll send some of my crew around to visit if they get a chance. I’m sure Liam and Cora would love to say hello and see how you’re doing.”

“Send them my way, I definitely would appreciate some company,” Sara replied.

“I’ll visit soon,” Scott confirmed. After a short time, he stood and giving Sara a clap on the shoulder exited the medbay. Sara watched him go, and sighed. This was going to be a lonely experience until she was allowed to actually do something.   

But, thankfully she didn’t have to be lonely too long; soon after Scott left two other humans wearing Andromeda Initiative gear approached her. One of them she recognised, Cora Harper, but the other she did not but through process of elimination concluded this was Liam.

Cora was just as she remembered; short blonde hair and a serious expression while Liam had a bubbly look to him with dark brown hair and dark eyes. He was the very definition of tall, dark and handsome.

“Hello Sara, I don’t know if you remember me but I’m Cora Harper,” Cora greeted her formally, and shook her hand carefully as though Sara was a fragile vase that was about to break.

“I’m Liam Kosta,” Liam was a lot rougher and grasped her hand tightly, which she reciprocated. Sara loved his accent; there was something about different human accents that was pleasing to her ear and Liam’s reminded her of her mother.

“How are you?” Cora asked.

“So, so,” Sara shrugged, “I was very confused when I woke up, but I feel better now.”

“Good to hear,” Cora nodded in satisfaction.

“What’s it like working for Scott?” Sara asked as they both took a seat by her bed, she _really_ wasn’t interested in talking about herself.

“He’s fine,” Liam answered.

“Very capable, I don’t think I would’ve done as good of a job,” Cora added.

“Really?” Sara asked, genuinely intrigued.

“He’s incredibly logical and diplomatic; he’s very like Alec,” Cora remarked.

Sara laughed, “Don’t let him hear that.”

“Although, he drives the Nomad like an absolute maniac,” Liam laughed. “I’ve had the pleasure of travelling with Peebee who threw up all over the backseats; and then on the other side you get Jaal who’s fast asleep!”

“Who are Peebee and Jaal?” Sara asked, looking between them.

“Jaal is an angara, not sure of if you know what-,” Cora began but Sara interrupted.

“Scott mentioned in passing - and Peebee?”

“Peebee is our resident asari, if you don’t count the ship’s doctor. She’s an asari too,” Liam said.

“Ohhh that’s her name, I think Scott mentioned her too,” Sara recalled, “she into remnant ruins?”

“Shit yes; she has two remnant bots on the ship,” Liam stated.

“Oh that’s cool! I think I’ll get along with Peebee! I’ve been dying to see all this stuff you’ve been discovering!” Sara said excitedly.

“Has Scott linked you to everything yet?” Cora asked.

“Not yet,” Sara replied, “I can’t wait to start learning, but I don’t want to learn everything from a datapad. I want to see all this stuff for myself.”

“I understand,” Cora nodded.

They spent the rest of the time talking about what they’d been up to in Heleus. Sara liked to listen – she was mesmerised about how much she had to catch up on. After an hour, Harry shooed Cora and Liam away saying that Sara had over-exerted herself.

“You need to sleep,” Harry said as he fiddled with the machines around her bed.

“I don’t want to sleep…” Sara trailed off, a sudden fear prickling over her skin.  

“You need-,” Harry began.

“What if I don’t wake up?”

She could see the lump in Harry’s throat as he struggled to formulate an answer, “Sara,” a distinctly artificial voice started, _SAM_ , “I have calculated that you have a 98.6% chance of regaining consciousness within a standard eight hour timeframe. Your body needs to rest properly to gather strength once more.”  

Sara merely nodded, not having the energy to fight with the AI or with Harry; she just hoped the entirety of her time in Andromeda wasn’t going to be sleeping.

xXx

The next day, Sara was sitting up in bed eating breakfast while cruising through her omni-tool. Her neural link to SAM had been established as well as her extranet account, and Scott had been sending her updates and information about what he had discovered about Andromeda.

The plethora of information almost caused her brain to break. While she didn’t want to read too much about angara since she’d rather learn from a real one, she decided that kett would be suitable reading material. However, after several minutes, she promptly discovered kett were not light morning reading.

She looked up from her bowl of what was supposed to be porridge but instead resembled lard to lock eyes with the most unique looking alien she had ever seen. He…or she…was clearly from Andromeda as she had never seen a Milky Way species quite like this; and likely an angara based on the fact no one seemed to be terrified in the presence of them.

The alien had purple-pink skin, with weird ‘flaps’ running alongside their head. Their legs were bent into a familiar shape that resembled a turian or quarian, but the feet were much smaller than what she was expecting to hold such a large frame. Their hands were covered by what looked like mittens, and they had a large blue poncho on that billowed around their large frame.

Their eyes were a brilliant shade of piercing blue with flecks of greens and browns, and instantly transported Sara’s thoughts to Earth.

The alien came closer to her bed and she looked up, not sure of what to do. She hadn’t read about angara yet and was regretting that decision. Hell, she had no idea if the angara could even understand her.

 _‘_ Your translator is fully equipped Sara, and he will be able to understand you _,_ ’ SAM said over their private channel. Sara jumped, not used to the AI’s presence in her head. 

Well, he was a he then.

“Can I help you?” Sara asked, placing her barely touched bowl on the side table before turning to face him.

“Are you Sara Ryder?” he asked cautiously, his tongue seemingly to glide over the words carefully, as if not wanting to screw them up.

“Yes,” Sara said cautiously, still not knowing what was happening.

“I’m Jaal Ama Darav, I’m part of your brother’s crew.”

“Oh! Oh right of course!” Sara slapped a hand to her forehead, “sorry! I haven’t done much reading about your species yet! Scott mentioned you but there’s been so much to take in and…” she shut up, suddenly aware she was babbling. Jaal was merely smiling at her, and took a seat at her bedside looking even bigger in the tiny chair that was not built for his large size.   

“This is…wow,” Sara said awkwardly, trying to make conversation.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Jaal replied.

“You too,” Sara tried to smile, but she felt the awkwardness on her face.

He seemed better at this then she did, but Sara reminded herself that she was not the first human he had ever met.

As he sat before her she took in more of his appearance. His skin was striking; the peculiar colour and tone had her intrigued. Without even knowing why, Sara had an urge to touch it, along with the neck flaps.

_Why do I want to touch this angara?_

Sara shook her head slightly to clear her thoughts.

“Why did you decide to come and see me?” Sara asked, keeping her tone light as to not to confuse Jaal of her intentions, she didn’t want to sound accusatory.

“Scott sent out a message on the Tempest that we were all allowed to visit. I thought you might need someone to speak to, hospitals can be very boring.”

“That’s…that’s very kind,” Sara replied.

“Plus…” Jaal’s eyes darted around the room, “Cora said you were ‘Scott’s better half’”

Sara burst out laughing, “She really said that?”

“She did,” Jaal confirmed, “you don’t believe it?”

“Not…really? I mean, Scott’s always been a natural leader and he’s excellent in a crisis. Not sure what Cora sees in me to be called Scott’s better half.”

“You’re a lot easier to talk to,” Jaal explained.

“I’m not surprised,” Sara chuckled. She was already taken with the angara whom she known for approximately two minutes.

‘Four minutes and thirty-two seconds’ SAM said on their private channel.

 _Thanks SAM._  

Jaal gave her a goofy smile, and she felt the awkwardness leave her body. She wasn’t so bad at this after all.

“Speaking of him - how’s my brother treating you? He can be a real hardass at times,” Sara explained.

“Hard-ass?” Jaal repeated; his translator appeared to be glitching.

“Oh,” Sara laughed, “it means he’s tough and doesn’t compromise, which he can be – it’s our Dad coming out in him.”

“He can be yes, but, he’s very capable,” Jaal said and Sara nodded, but noticed that his words didn’t quite touch his eyes. She couldn’t figure out whether that was just the way angara spoke or whether there was doubt in his words.

“Glad to hear he’s going okay,” Sara commented, and then an awkward silence fell again.

“So…” Sara started, desperately fishing for a conversation starter, “do all of you have the-?” Sara gestured to the sides of her head, and Jaal tilted his head in confusion before recognising what Sara meant.

“Yes, it’s a trait of angara,” Jaal replied in a matter-of-fact tone as he ran his fingers down his neck flaps, “rather like your hair.”

“Touché,” Sara retorted and Jaal chuckled.

“I want to ask a question,” Jaal said.

“Yeah, sure?” Sara urged him.

“You and your brother – you are twins yes, born on the same day?” Jaal asked, and Sara cocked an eyebrow at the sudden change of direction.  

“Funny story actually,” Sara began, “we aren’t.”

“But – but Scott said you were twins and my readings suggest...” Jaal couldn’t keep the confusion from his voice; and the sudden shift in body language panicked Sara slightly.

“We are twins. Scott wasn’t lying,” Sara said quickly to quell Jaal’s fear “-but I was born a minute ahead of him on the last minute of the previous day, Scott was born on the first minute of the next day.”

“That’s…,” Jaal took a deep breath, “incredible. I’ve read that twins are rare in humans, but twins born on different days?”

“It always annoyed the shit out of Scott,” Sara laughed, memories of birthdays flooding though her head, “he’d always have to wait an extra day to do anything, but the tables turned when we turned 18. I had to wait an entire day before we could go out drinking because I’m a good sister and wouldn’t go without him,” Sara took a breath and mumbled, “and partly because I was scared of the clubs and may have wanted my brother with me.”

Jaal’s eye ridges rose and Sara hastily explained, “Drinking age of alcoholic beverages for humans is 18 standard Earth years.”

Jaal nodded, seemingly satisfied, “I am guessing you and Scott are close?”

“Very,” Sara confirmed, “he’s my little brother by a minute but he’s always been like an older sibling. If anyone hurts me, he will hunt them down. For example, we were in this dodgy bar back in the Milky Way once and he punched a batarian in the face who was trying to flirt with me.”

Jaal’s eye ridges rose, “he loses control?”

“No. Every action, no matter how impulsive, is carefully thought out and he always has an explanation.”

Jaal nodded, and Sara pulled another question from thin air, “Anyway, are multiple births common for angara?”

“Yes, very,” Jaal replied, “it is very rare for an angaran woman to give birth to just one child.”

“That’s quite a difference,” Sara remarked. Jaal shifted and the chair creaked; he still looked very awkward despite having more experience with humans. “What’s your opinion of the other species with the Initiative?” Sara asked.

“The only real experiences I’ve had with the species are the Tempest, and I’m not sure if they are the best examples. Most of the crew is human, but each one is so different so I gather that most of the other species are unique individuals too.”

“Very,” Sara nodded.

“As for the others; there’s a krogan. His name is Drack, and he’s 1400 years old. I’ve discovered he likes killing things.”

“And that’s the exception to the _uniqueness_ rule, all krogan like to kill. Well, I’ve never met one that doesn’t. It’s a krogan thing.”

“Krogans and turians appear to have natural armour; Vetra is a turian and she’s made of what looks like bone. Salarians, asari and humans are far too squishy. But, turians frighten me; they remind me of kett…”

“How?” Sara asked, her voice rising slightly in surprise.

“Have you seen a picture of a kett?”

“Yes,” Sara nodded, shuddering when the image was bought to the forefront of her mind.  

“The plates remind me of the calcium deposits on kett,” Jaal explained, “I was very cautious around Vetra at first, but I have learnt that she is nothing like them.”

“Turians’ don’t actually have natural armour; the hard outer layer is because their home-world had a very low magnetic field and made life of the planet very susceptible to sunburn and damage so the life there developed a protective layer against it. The plates however don’t provide natural armour.”

Jaal was quiet for a few moments, “show off,” he muttered, a smile tugging at his lip and Sara laughed.  

“Do you have a salarian crew-mate?” Sara asked.

“The pilot is a salarian; Kallo Jath,” Jaal said.

“Like him?”

“I can barely keep up with him, my translator doesn’t catch half of the words,” Jaal replied and Sara laughed.

“That sounds like a typical salarian to me,” Sara was grinning, “they’re all very fast – they only sleep for an hour a day, tops. Have you met a female salarian yet?”

“Not personally; but I heard the pathfinder over the comms. She was tragically left behind,” Jaal explained, and Sara’s gut churned, another original pathfinder lost.

“What about a male asari?” Sara asked, hiding her smile.

“No, they-,” but Jaal caught on very quickly, and frowned at her causing a grin to spread over her face.

“I got you,” Sara teased.

“No, you didn’t.”

“Admit it,” Sara poked her tongue at him, and he chuckled and his stance eased. She couldn’t understand how she was getting along so easily with a species she had only met not ten minutes ago, but yet, here she was. Jaal had a different energy to Cora and Liam, one that Sara felt matched her own.

Jaal sighed as he looked down at his arm where it looked like he had an angaran version of an omni-tool, “I am wanted for a resistance meeting,” he stood up, but his face betrayed his thoughts – if Sara was reading him correctly he didn’t want to go anywhere, “but I will visit you again.”  

“I wait eagerly,” she held out her hand for Jaal to shake, and he stared down at it before placing his outer forearm on hers. She cocked an eyebrow, and tried to move her arm back into position for a handshake. He grabbed her wrist, and put her arm in a 90 degree angle.

Sara followed his lead, he closed his fist so she copied and he slapped his outer forearm to hers, which she tried to reciprocate.

“This is different,” Sara remarked casually.

“This is how angara greet,” Jaal explained as they withdrew their arms. Sara nodded at him.

“I like it,” Sara replied.

“Stay strong, and clear!” Jaal said with a steady voice, and Sara figured this was an angaran greeting as well.

“See you later!” Sara replied, giving him a human greeting back and he smiled warmly before turning away. Sara looked around the med-bay and saw a few humans staring open-mouthed at Jaal as he left.

‘They have never seen an angara before,’ SAM explained over her private channel, and Sara jumped. She really wasn’t used to SAM in her head. The humans in question must’ve been fresh out of cryostasis.

“Neither had I till just then,” Sara muttered out-loud.

‘You did much better than Scott did,’ SAM mused.

 _‘Oh?’_ Sara thought, not wanting to get any weird looks.

‘The Pathfinder arrived on Aya on fire, and emerged from the ship at gunpoint. He was, to use a human phrase, ‘sweating bullets.’’

Sara paused for a second, ‘ _was…was that a joke?_ ’

SAM answered aloud, “the last part, yes. Your father installed humour algorithms and I have been practicing.”

Sara burst out laughing, “keep trying SAM.”

She stared at the doorway, hoping that more visitors would walk through to cheer her up. However, it looked like the only visitor she was about to get was Harry and a dozen angry looking needles.

 _This is going to be a long few weeks_ Sara sighed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dorky Sara is best Sara! Thank you to anyone who read, leaves kudos, subscribes or reviews! Constructive criticism is always welcome :D 
> 
> Also to anyone who doesn't know; but I think it's in the tags - these Ryders are the defaults (Patch 1.05 to be specific - no makeup on my default Sara please!)


	3. Introductions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara begins her first days in Andromeda, and gets introduced to one of the most important people in Scott's life and gets some time with her favourite angara

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, so, I'm not sure how I'm feeling about this chapter. I know it's necessary, but it also feels slow. I hope everyone enjoys. Again, I don't have a beta so some sneaky errors may have presented themselves.

Sara spent her first days in Andromeda starting her physical therapy or in bed being poked and prodded. She had to admit, it wasn’t how she foresaw things happening; but in downtime she had her nose buried in a datapad, trying to learn as much as possible about the place she now called home. The only info she didn’t browse over was about the angara, for fear her knowledge would be too ‘clinical’ if it came from impersonal information. Scott had been able to live and walk with an angara, and she wanted the same – except for her she didn’t have the convenience of having one living next door.

But since the information about the kett couldn’t come from an actual kett, she read up and learnt all about their biology from Dr Lexi’s notes and the process of exaltation. She read about the little amount on the Scourge, and the Remnant. She let out a moan of longing at the pictures of the vaults Scott and Peebee had taken, she was itching to enter one and explore with other archaeologists – or even Peebee if teams couldn’t enter. She read about the uprising, and the terraforming, and the colonies.

Scott came around as much as he could, sitting with Sara while she attended physical therapy and taking her for short walks in the Hyperion to near Alec’s quarters which would be hers once she recovered enough to be trusted on her own. However, most of the time he was by her beside – even lolling back and falling asleep on Sara’s second night.

On the fourth day, Sara sat on the side of the bed while Harry ran tests for the umpteenth time.

“Seriously Harry? You need to let me get out of here,” she was almost begging with the doctor as he finished off collecting her blood and wiped medi-gel over the collection site.

Aside from Liam, Cora, Jaal and Scott no one else had come to visit Sara, and she wanted to get out of the med-bay as soon as possible. While she usually enjoyed being around people, she hated hospitals and hated the people coming out of cryo even more.

“We made it?” someone across from her ask as a doctor was going through the usual process. Sara rolled her eyes so hard they hurt, she hated that question. Everyone thought they were being original and it was very tedious.

“When are we?”

Sara grit her teeth, fuck she hated that question. People trying to be funny and _they_ _all thought they were original._ She was over it.

“You’re doing very well Sara, a lot better than SAM had calculated!” Harry replied as he ran her bloodwork, “I’ll just check that your final bloodwork is within normal parameters and then I’ll let you stay in your father’s quarters, which have been reassigned as yours.”

“Really?” Sara couldn’t hide the excitement from her voice.

“Hang on yet!” Harry replied as he read over the readings, “hmm, everything checks out.”

“I’m free to go?” Sara asked, holding her breath.

“Yes,” Harry said and Sara leapt off of the bed as though she was in an animated cartoon.

“Take it easy or I’ll bring you back here!” Harry called after her but Sara couldn’t help it, anything to be free of the med-bay. She almost ran through the building to reach the tram and turned back to view it not quite believing she was free before smacking into something solid.  

“Yikes!” Sara grabbed at the side of her head, but felt a strong arm holding her up to prevent her falling. Once she was steady on her feet, she followed the mitten-wearing hand to the face of Jaal who was watching her curiously.

“Hello there,” Jaal smiled warmly at her.

“Hi!” Sara replied, not quite expecting to run into Jaal.

“Are you sneaking out?” Jaal asked.

Sara laughed, “No! Actually, I’ve been allowed to stay in my father’s quarters.”

“Wonderful!”

“What are you doing here?” Sara asked.

Jaal shifted uncomfortably and a faint blue tinge appeared on his cheeks, “I thought I would visit you again.”

Sara felt a smile creep on her face, “I appreciate it,” the two of them walked into the corridor toward the tram, “would you like to join me?”

“Sure,” Jaal answered as they stepped into the crowded tram. Jaal gathered a few curious looks and Sara weaved around people to hit the button that would take her to the main atrium. The ride was thankfully short, and the two made their way over to Alec’s – no – Sara’s room.

The door swished open when she approached, and a studio apartment greeted her, a small bag of her belongings sitting by the door. Sara had not been in here yet, but many emotions flooded her system at once. She felt as if her father was really here as she looked at the assortment of guns in the shelves, the coffee machine that her mother had bought for her father and datapads scattered over the floor.

“Oh cool! A Normandy model!” Sara remarked trying to distance herself from her emotions and picked up the small spacecraft that sat above the bed.

“It looks like the Tempest,” Jaal remarked, staring at the tiny spaceship.

“This is a model of Commander Shepard’s ship,” Sara explained to him “she was the first human spectre. Spectres were elite operative forces that worked for the galactic council.”

“Like an N7?”

“Oh you’ve heard of that?”

“Scott wears armour with an ‘N7’ on the front,” Jaal said, indicating his chest.

“Ah, Scott’s not an N7 – he always wanted to be though, but I have no idea why he’s wearing the armour. Dad was one, and Shepard was one. N7’s are elite forces within the human military which we called the Systems Alliance. Spectres work for the galactic council, which is headed by the council races – asari, salarians and turians. Humans were added much later.”

Jaal didn’t speak, but nodded as though satisfied with Sara’s explanation while she made her way over to the coffee machine.

“I’ve seen the crew drink this,” Jaal spoke up.

“I’m sure you have! This is my first in what? 635 years or something?” Sara chortled as she turned on the machine and hunted through the cupboards to find two cups. She turned to see Jaal sitting at the table, watching her intently.

“How do you like your coffee?” Sara asked absent-mindedly as she spotted the honey. Strange, she didn’t think her father knew that she liked honey in her coffee, but there it was sitting right by the machine. She shrugged and drizzled a little in; the small familiarity did wonders for her mood.

“The same as you,” Jaal replied. Sara didn’t believe that he even liked coffee but did as he asked, adding honey and then placing the mug in-front of him and sitting opposite.

“Tell me something about you,” Sara said as she took a delicate sip, sighing gratefully as the warm drink filled her.

“What would you like to know?”

“Hmm, what about your family?”

And he was off explaining every member of his family. He was very enthusiastic, waving his arms in the air as he spoke of each of them, and the love in his eyes could compete with any human she had met.

“So are large families common for angara?”

“Yes!” Jaal chirped happily, almost spilling his untouched coffee. Sara grinned; he was such a gentleman by taking the coffee, “as you know we have multiple births, and we have many mothers and many fathers. I have five mothers, but only one true mother.”

“Wow! I think I’d feel claustrophobic with so many people,” Sara laughed, but seeing Jaal’s smile dip she hastily continued, “But that’s because I’m not used to it. My mother didn’t speak to her side, and we saw dad’s side once every few years.”

“So it was just you, your brother and your true mother and true father?” Jaal asked curiously.

“Yep,” Sara confirmed, taking another sip, “but you could say it was just me and my brother really.”

“How so?”

“My parents were…complicated. They were probably the type of people that should’ve never had kids,” Sara sighed, looking around the room and feeling a sudden wave of sadness come over her. Jaal reached out and covered one of her hands with his.

“I’m sorry Sara,” Jaal murmured sincerely.

“Thank you Jaal,” she smiled at him, “Scott and I have always been close. I can imagine it must’ve been difficult when I was unconscious.”

“It was,” Jaal agreed.

There was a knock on the door and Sara flinched slightly, she was not expecting guests. Jaal withdrew his hand as the door opened, to reveal Scott and a very tall female turian with very pretty purple markings on her face.

“Jaal! I didn’t realise you were over here! What’re you guys doing?” Scott exclaimed in shock.

“We’re having coffee,” Sara grinned up at her brother.

“Is this a bad time?” Scott asked as his eyes darted between Jaal and Sara.

“No, no,” Jaal smiled as he hastily stood, Sara couldn’t help noticing the smile did not reach his eyes, “I was just leaving.”

“Oh, oh okay,” Sara pouted slightly, she had been enjoying her chat with Jaal. The angara smiled sadly and held out his arm, and Sara slapped hers against his in the typical angaran fashion.

“Stay strong, and clear!”

“See you,” Sara waved after him. He smacked his arm against the turian’s as he passed, but ignored Scott completely as he left the quarters, the doors snapping shut behind him.

“What’s the occasion?” Scott asked as he indicated the coffee cups on the table.

“Nothing of the sort, Jaal just wanted to chat to me,” Sara replied as she gathered her empty cup and Jaal’s full one and placed them in the sink, “so, are you going to introduce me?”

“Oh!” Scott jumped; it looked as if he had forgotten that the turian was in the room. She had remained very quiet, her visor was glowing in the semi-darkness and she rested on one leg with her arms crossed.  

“Sara, this is Vetra Nyx. She’s our resident smuggler and a valuable part of my team – and Vetra this is my sister, Sara Ryder.”

Sara stepped forward and shook Vetra’s hand, noting just how tall she was. She even towered over Scott, which was not a common occurrence.

“I’ve heard a lot about you, it’s nice to finally meet you,” Vetra’s mandibles flicked out, which Sara believed to be the turian equivalent of a smile.

“Oh have you now? All good things I hope?” Sara asked playfully.

“Of course,” Vetra laughed, and smiled down at Scott who seemed to be a little redder in the face than usual.

Sara cocked an eyebrow and her eyes now darted between them, curious as to what was going on, “so Scott, Vetra’s the only member of your crew you’ve formally introduced me to...”

“Weren’t you just with Jaal?” Scott retorted.

“Jaal introduced himself to me the other day, as did Cora and Liam,” Sara waved off his comment, “you didn’t introduce me to them.”

“Huh? Oh…right,” Scott replied, seeming genuinely confused. Vetra meanwhile had nudged Scott in the ribs and whether it was a trick of the light or not Sara could’ve sworn that Vetra’s face had tinged blue even through the facial plates.

“Um, well, Vetra…” Scott began, rubbing the back of his neck and not meeting Sara’s eyes. Sara slapped a hand to her face trying and failing to contain her sudden laughter.

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Sara asked, folding her arms and taking in the pair of them.

Even through her visor, Sara could see Vetra’s eyes were staring at Scott. Scott gulped noisily and looked his sister dead in the face, “Vetra and I are…together.”

Sara made an inhuman sound as her excitement escaped her and enveloped her brother in her arms, “congratulations!”

“Someone’s excited!” Scott laughed as he gently patted Sara on the back.

“It’s just…gah I’ve always wanted you to find someone! And you have! And it’s exciting! Best news I’ve heard since waking up!”

“Wait-,” Vetra interjected as the twins broke apart, “you’re not the super stud you’ve been telling me about?”

Sara snorted, “pfft no. You had what – two girlfriends? The longest being for what – three months?”

“Six actually,” Scott replied as he grinned despite the obvious annoyance.

“So how long have you guys been a _thing_?” Sara asked cheekily and Scott rolled his eyes good-naturedly.

“Couple of months now? I’m not sure,” Scott replied and Vetra looked accosted and Sara joined in.

“You don’t even know? You are so unromantic,” Sara criticised and Vetra let out a bark of a laugh.

“Can you two _please_ stop ganging up on me?” Scott begged playfully.

“Hmm, nah,” Vetra said and Sara laughed with her, “you just wait until you formally meet _my_ sister Scott.”

The blood drained from Scott’s face, “…shit.”

Vetra and Sara roared with laughter at Scott’s discomfort and he gently punched Sara and Vetra in the arm. Sara punched him back and the two of them were soon messing around like they used to do in the Milky Way. Out of the corner of her eye, Sara noticed Vetra smirking at the two of them, as though pleased about something.

“We should go on a double date!” Sara said without thinking and then Scott and Vetra glanced at each other before glancing back at her. Sara realised exactly what she had said and her face fell, “oh…oh yeah. Right.”

Scott grimaced, and placed a gentle hand on Sara’s shoulder, “you’ll find someone – wait till I introduce you to Peebee!”

Sara rolled her eyes, “your asari squadmate I keep hearing about? Okay matchmaker.”

Vetra merely chuckled, “This’ll be interesting.”  

Scott’s omni-tool pinged and Sara frowned as he went to look at it, “Shit. Tann wants to have a meeting,” he rolled his eyes in exasperation; “I told him I was busy today.” Scott grumbled and typed out a reply.

“Go, it’s okay,” Sara urged him. Scott looked conflicted as his omni-tool pinged again, “it’s obviously important.”

“But you’re important to me Sara,” Scott whined.

“Kill the Archon, then we’ll have coffee,” Sara replied and Scott gave her a quick hug.

“It was nice meeting you Sara, you’ll have to tell me all about Scott’s _stud years_ ,” Vetra winked at her.

“Oh yes, or lack thereof!” Sara laughed and watched as the two of them departed. Once they were gone Sara’s smile disappeared. She had forgotten how much she hated loneliness. All she saw were doctors and physical therapists – people who poked and prodded her, with a job to do and not interested in having a conversation, she longed to have a _real_ conversation with someone that wasn’t cut short.

‘Would you prefer to be in the medical bay to be around other people?’ a disembodied voice asked her. She still wasn’t used to SAM’s presence in her head. The neural link between her and SAM wasn’t quite the same as the one SAM shared with her brother, but it was enough to be slightly unnerving.

“No, no,” Sara replied quickly, “I’m just…I don’t know. Scott’s out being useful with a crew and has a woman now and I’m just…in a room, grieving for an asari that has long moved on and being utterly useless.”

“Scott has accomplished a lot, but you will also accomplish things of your own.”

“I hope so,” Sara sighed. Her omni-tool pinged and thinking it was Scott, she looked down only to be greeted from a message from Jaal.

“Jaal’s writing to me?” Sara questioned, and opened the message.

_From: Ama Darav, J.  
To: Ryder, S. _

_Dear Sara,_

_I hope you don’t find it strange that I am writing to you, I asked Scott for your extranet address and he obliged thinking it may be good for you to have someone to talk to._

_We’re here for another day or two and I was wondering if you would like to meet again? I thoroughly enjoyed our ‘coffee’ and would love to do it again._

_Yours,  
Jaal_

Sara read through the letter a few more times, “he actually wants to hang out with me?”

‘I have noted that your blood pressure drops and your stress levels decrease when you are present in Jaal’s company.’

“That would make sense…” Sara replied as she typed her response to Jaal, “he’s probably the only friend I have in Andromeda, aside from Scott.”

‘Noted,’ SAM replied. Sara rolled her eyes at the AI as she hit send. She only had to wait a few minutes before Jaal replied, saying he wanted to meet tomorrow in the docking bay of the Nexus.

xXx

The grind to the next day was almost too much for Sara. She spent a listless night in her bed, tossing and turning, her stomach churning with nerves. Finally, she felt into an uneasy slumber before waking and feeling thoroughly under-rested.

She had never left the Hyperion, and truthfully she wasn’t fully sure she was supposed to. She made her way into the main atrium of the Hyperion and looked around uneasily; no one seemed to be interested in her. They were merely going about their business.

Sara followed the signs to the tram, only to spy an asari openly staring at her. She had a roguish look; it reminded Sara of video games she had played as a child. She had a purple jacket on that showed her bare midriff, with tight pants and high boots. Her face was mesmerising, she had a black stripe over her green eyes.

The asari caught her eye, and Sara looked away hurriedly, not sure what to make of her – and also wondering why an asari was on the human ark. The last she’d heard the asari ark was docked to the Nexus.

Shaking her head, Sara stepped into the tram and pressed the button that read ‘docking bay’. She sat, as her brief walk had tired her more than she would’ve liked, and the butterflies rose in her stomach. She didn’t know why she was so nervous to meet with Jaal. Maybe it was the fact she was going to the Nexus for the first time.

Before she could change her mind, the tram doors opened and several people filed in and gave her a curious glance. She hurried out of the tram and walked up a short hallway to a huge open area that instantly reminded her of the Citadel.

Huge lush trees with smaller flora, opaline white walls and floor and as she approached the edge she could see the Nexus sloped upward, like the Presidium of the Citadel. The only thing it was missing was the frequent hum of the cars that whizzed by consistently on the Citadel. The Nexus, in comparison, was whisper quiet.

Aliens of varying degrees rushed around her. There were groups of people passing through immigration to be able to settle colonies and others merely going about their business. She spied several angara standing near the hologram of Avina and eyeing everyone curiously.

Sara didn’t know quite what to do, so she settled for leaning against the railing and staring at a beautiful spaceship that was docked nearby. Walking along the railing line, she spotted the word ‘Tempest’ on the side of the ship, and sighed in recognition.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” a voice from beside her said, and she turned to see a familiar purple angara.

“Hey,” Sara breathed in a sigh of relief that he was finally here. She stepped toward him, unsure of what to do. She wanted to hug him, as she normally did when she met with friends – but he didn’t feel familiar enough to do that yet. She didn’t even know how Jaal would react to that. Scott had said that they were open with their emotions, but Sara didn’t want to make it awkward.

Jaal chuckled at her obvious awkwardness, he held up his arm and Sara slapped hers against his, feeling better now that she wasn’t hovering awkwardly.

“That’s Scott’s isn’t it?” Sara asked, indicating the Tempest.

“It is,” Jaal confirmed, “would you like a tour of it?”

Sara breathed in excitedly, but her brother’s face flickered in her mind, “No it’s okay, I’d like to see it with my brother.”

Jaal made a noise in his throat, “I understand. What would you like to do today?”

“Show me around the Nexus?” Sara asked, and Jaal smiled in response. The two of them then began to walk and to finally talk properly without interruptions. Sara learnt about angaran culture, their ways of life and Jaal’s extensive family – although she was having trouble keeping up with the names.

“What’s Havarl like?” Sara asked as they came to rest on one of the chairs in Operations. Sara had a stitch in her side, and grasped at it as she sat.

Jaal eyed her curiously, but didn’t mention it before continuing, “It’s beautiful. Havarl is the planet that I was born and raised on. My true mother lives there, as do most of my family. It is the ancestral world of the angara. It is full of hidden dangers like poisonous plants and dangerous animals, but it also very beautiful.”

“Sounds like some of the rainforests on Earth,” Sara laughed, “I would love to visit! Studying some of those poisonous plants sounds interesting.”

“You study plants?” Jaal asked curiously.

“I like to study a lot of things, but back home I was an archaeologist. I studied Prothean ruins.”

“What’s a Prothean?”

Sara couldn’t control the giggle that fell from her lips, “they’re an ancient alien species in the Milky Way. They left all this cool technology behind so we’d been studying it and trying to figure them out. They disappeared 50,000 years ago without a trace. There were rumours about what had happened but no definitive proof,” Sara looked up to see Jaal staring at her with an unreadable expression on his face.

“Oh – sorry, I tend to carry on when I’m talking about protheans.”

Jaal tilted his head, “no, no. I find it interesting.”

“You do?”

“Yes,” he smiled, “I clearly do not know much about the Milkee Whey if I do not know of these protheans.”

Sara smiled shyly back at him, “most people get bored with it.”

“Trust me Sara, I am not bored.”

“Okay,” Sara nodded, a little mystified that an alien who would never see her home would be so interested in it, “what else can you tell me about the Heleus cluster?”

So they talked like this, in the middle of Operations. For how long Sara had no idea, but time finally felt irrelevant to her. She had missed this, having an in-depth conversation with someone she considered a friend.

Jaal was so unexpected, and so interesting. She couldn’t help but be drawn to his soulful eyes that reminded her of Earth whenever she looked at them. She wasn’t particularly attached to Earth as other humans were – but she had plenty of happy memories there. A memory flashed in her mind of leaving Earth for the last time, and taking one last look at the Blue Marble out the window as they docked on the Hyperion.

Her omni tool pinged, and pulled her out of her own mind. She looked down and groaned loudly.

“What is it?” Jaal asked; a slight edge of anxiety in his voice.

“Ergh, it’s Harry. He wants me back in the med bay. I may have skipped my morning health check,” Sara admitted guiltily.

Jaal smirked, a simple upturn of one of the corners of his mouth and cocked an eyeridge, “do you often defy authority?”

At this Sara laughed, “Oh you have no idea.”

Jaal stood and extended his hand, which Sara took and he helped her get to her feet, “You? A rebel?” he asked.

“Trust me; I’m the exact opposite of my brother. He’s the righteous good one; I was always the rebellious one.”

“I can’t picture that,” Jaal chuckled.

“When we meet up again, I’ll tell you a few stories. Plus, I can tell you a few good ones about Scott.”

“I’d like that,” Jaal said, “also – are you aware that we leave tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?” Sara stopped dead and Jaal almost tripped over his own feet in a haste to stop, “I can’t believe it’s so soon.”

“Scott wants to continue to hunt the Archon, we’re going to Elaaden,” Jaal explained.

Sara gulped, “I understand. I hope I’ll get to see you soon.”

“You will,” Jaal gave her an apologetic smile.

All too soon the two of them had made their back to the Hyperion and into the section that contained the med bay. Sara noted that Jaal looked slightly out of place; the only notable exception was a turian sitting across from her usual bed being tended to by one of the doctors.

A surly looking Harry came into view then, “Sara Leia Ryder,” he called out to her, and Sara flinched at the use of her full name.

“Hi Harry,” Sara tried to smile innocently as he approached her.

“You, my dear, missed your daily check-up and went gallivanting around the Nexus without telling me or any other medical staff where you’d gone off too.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sara dismissed, “it’s fine!” she tried to discreetly hide the pain in her side that was now throbbing as she moved forward.

Harry poked her in the side, causing a hiss to escape from her lips, “geez man!” Sara whimpered, narrowing her eyes against the surge of pain.

“Yes, you’re absolutely fine,” Harry rolled his eyes at her, “c’mon, I need to take a look at that pain.”

“It’s just a stitch, we did some walking today,” Sara defended. Harry wheeled around staring at Jaal, as if only just noticing that he was in the room.

“That’s my fault doctor,” Jaal added, “we should’ve stayed in her quarters.”

“No Jaal, it was my idea – you aren’t to blame. Plus, I’m sick of being stuck in here. I’ve always hated hospitals.”

“Hate hospitals or no it’s time for your check-up,” Harry tapped his foot impatiently. Sara pouted at him and turned back to Jaal who continued to look extremely out of place.

“Thank you for today, and good luck on Elaaden.”

“You’re welcome,” Jaal replied. She looked into the angara’s eyes for a few moments, before deciding to swallow her fear and wrapped her arms around his waist. He hesitated, but she felt his huge arms come up to hug her back, his hands being gentle around her tender ribs.

Wow, angara gave good hugs. Or maybe it was just Jaal.

She waved goodbye to him after that, and watched him go. His poncho flowed like a cape behind him as he walked through the med-bay. Sara’s legs felt an itch to run after him and smuggle her way onto the Tempest, but she knew her broken body would be unable to maintain it.  

Sara sighed and turned back; lying on the bed she had spent so many months on. Harry hovered over her and collected blood samples and went over his usual routine.

“So,” Harry always tried to engage in conversation, Sara wondered if SAM had told him about her low moods, “that angara seems to like you.”

“Jaal? Yeah, he’s really interesting,” Sara replied, “I’d rather learn about angara from one rather than a book.”

Harry nodded, “I’m sure you will be assigned to the pathfinder’s team when you are well enough.”

“I hope so anyway,” Sara said as Harry read through the results of the tests.

“Nothing amiss here, it seems you’ve just over-exerted yourself. No more massive turn arounds on the Nexus!” Harry waggled his finger which caused Sara to roll her eyes in frustration.

“Okay, okay,” Sara held up her hands in defeat. She was dismissed, and gratefully made her way back into her room where she pulled up a datapad and one of her novels from the Milky Way, but had a million thoughts swimming around her head – some of them hoped that the Tempest’s crew would return soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter should be moving along slightly, although if you're stuck on the Hyperion while your pathfinder brother is running around pathfinding stuff, I can imagine life would be a tad dull (and Sara is quite the adventurer). Next chapter should be soon hopefully!


	4. Truths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara finds out the truth about the Initiative, bonds with Jaal over a mutual hobby and attends a 'super secret pathfinder business' meeting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's up y'all? Hope everyone is well! 
> 
> First up, I'm giving a huge shoutout to StellarisJay for their AWESOME comments! Seriously thank you, you're so inspiring and I hope my work is like yours someday :D
> 
> But honestly, thank you to everyone: whether you've read, reviewed, left kudos, bookmarked or subscribed - you're all the absolute best! You inspire me to keep writing and to want to be a better writer!

_Smack, smack, smack._

Sara’s feet were pounding the treadmill as she pushed her body through its paces. She looked down at her legs, watching the muscles ripple under the skin; they were finally returning to form after her six-month coma. Her whole body’s condition was vastly improving and Sara couldn’t wait to try shooting again.

Her music was blasting around the room as she ran; her head bobbing to the ancient 21st century tunes as she slowed and went through her cool-down routine.

‘You are doing very well, your results are staggering and higher than Dr Carlyle or I had anticipated’ SAM vocalised.

 _Thank you_ Sara thought as she stretched her aching thigh and calf muscles.  The sweat beaded on her forehead, and rolled from her hair down the back of her neck. She wiped her brow and drank half of her water bottle’s contents in two gulps. She switched her music off and threw her towel over her shoulder.

 “Looking sharp!”

She jumped at the voice, and turned to see her brother lounging easily against the doorframe, arms crossed and a smirk on his face.  

“Hey!”

“Hey,” Scott smiled as Sara approached, and he went in for the hug but Sara stepped back.

“Dude…I smell horrid.”

“Eh,” Scott shrugged and hugged her anyway; Sara smirked and reciprocated.

“Since when were you due back here?” Sara asked casually as they broke apart, Scott’s nose wrinkling slightly.

Scott shrugged, “the krogan were a lot easier to deal with than I expected – thank god. As it turns out having a well-respected member of Clan Nakmor as part of your team does wonders.”

“How long are you here for this time?”

“Sadly, one night,” Scott replied, “we need to beat the Archon to Meridian.”

“I understand,” Sara said, “how did you find me anyway?”

“I asked Harry where you were,” Scott answered, “he told me you were doing cardio – I was expecting you to be taking a leisurely stroll or something, I can’t believe you were running.”

Sara winced at Scott saying ‘leisurely stroll’, it had taken a month of hard work and determination to get herself to this point; and her earlier sessions had been slower than this. But, she couldn’t be bothered arguing, “yeah, me either,” Sara agreed without enthusiasm.

They walked back into the Hyperion and Sara made for her room when Scott grabbed her arm, “wait – there’s something I’d like to show you.”

 “Okay?” Sara asked, cocking an eyebrow, “but I need a shower first. Can it wait ten minutes?”

A short while later in a fresh set of clothes Sara followed her brother into the med-bay. Sara groaned, “You’re going to show me something in the room I’ve spent all of my time in?”

“No, you dolt – come this way,” Scott rolled his eyes and led Sara into the cryo-bay, which truthfully was a room Sara had never been in.

“Why are we in here?” Sara asked, looking around as she and Scott stopped in front of one of the pod retrieval devices.  

“Who’s the one person you’d like to see again?” Scott asked as he inputted numbers into the device, and it fetched a pod for them.  

Sara thought for a second as she watched the pod be bought down, “mum,” she said quietly, stepping forward and reading the name ‘Elizabeth Reilly’ on the pod.   

Scott didn’t speak and Sara stared at him, he stared back as if willing her to catch up with his thoughts.  

“Wait…” Sara turned back to the pod with a sudden _ridiculous_ realisation, “no way.”

“Yes!” Scott could barely contain his excitement, he was practically bouncing on his heels, “Elizabeth Reilly is actually Ellen Ryder!”

“You’re pulling my leg,” Sara accused.

“I’m not,” Scott argued.

“How is this possible?” Sara breathed, placing a hand on the pod with tears spilling thick and fast down her face. Good memories of her mother flashed in her mind: roasting marshmallows on a camping trip, enjoying family movie nights, being nosy and watching her mother design and build biotic implants.

She would be able to experience it all again, here, in Andromeda.

“Dad put her in stasis before she died-,” Scott started to explain.

“Alec hoped that new discoveries in Andromeda would aid in curing Ellen, this is why Scott was made the pathfinder – to see through this work and make sure his plan succeeded,” SAM finished for him.

“I simultaneously want to hug and scream at dad right now,” Sara finally spoke up, wiping the tears off of her face but it only made way for new ones, “I can’t believe it.”

“I couldn’t either,” Scott added. Silence fell between them and Scott pulled Sara into a side hug, Sara’s hand never leaving the pod. For how they long they stood Sara had no idea, but her tears had dried when they wordlessly decided to leave.

“There’s something else I need to show you as well,” Scott added. Sara followed without complaint to SAM node, which was conveniently located just outside her room. She had never been in here, and was greeted to a large room with a glowing blue orb.

“SAM,” Scott said as they approached, “can you please replay the last memory you showed me for Sara?”

“Certainly,” SAM replied aloud. Sara stepped forward and waited, she wasn’t sure what to expect. Suddenly SAM node was gone, and Sara was in a dark room staring down at a datapad. She startled when she heard Alec’s voice as if she was speaking the words – it took a second to realise she _was_ her father in this memory.

_Dad…_

She watched as Alec spoke with a turian, Castis Vakarian, his name and voice felt very familiar to Sara.

The memory ended, and the room shimmered back to the present. Sara’s knuckles were white from holding the bar in front of her as the words replayed over and over in her mind.

_Reapers…galactic extinction cycle…once every fifty-thousand years…_

“Goya…” Sara whispered, unable to think of anything else to say. Goya; her beloved asari whom she left behind in the Milky Way. Goya, whom she had thought would’ve lived out her life and found happiness, was possibly killed by these reapers. The thought was unbearable.

“Oh my god,” Scott replied, he had clearly not thought of this, “Sara I…” he trailed off.

“This whole time I thought…” she shook her head to clear her thoughts, “do we know anything? Were they real?”

“There are precious few audio recordings of the Milky Way after we left; and from what I’ve heard it sounds like it…” Scott said; the regret in his eyes evident, “that’s why the initiative was hurried, so we could avoid it.”

“I should’ve…” Sara started, desperately trying to control the fresh onslaught of tears, “I should’ve…I’ll never know. The woman I loved, _love_ , I don’t know her fate.”

“Well, she doesn’t know yours either.”

Sara winced at the blunt honesty, “I need to go.”

“It was a mistake showing you Sara, I’m so sorry,” Scott panicked, stepping into stride when Sara turned on her heel and fled the AI node as fast as possible.

“No, I needed to know. I’m a big girl, remember?” Sara snapped, she had no idea where this emotion had come from but she needed to get away, “I’ll see you later,” she called out to Scott without turning to him before the doors of her cabin snapped shut.

She let out a shaky breath as she strode into the cabin, “fuck…”

Numbness flowed through her very being, unable to process what was going on. Her home could be gone. They may be the last surviving humans in the entire _universe_. The Hyperion contained 20,000 humans plus the ones that arrived on the Nexus; every life was sacred since the fate of their species was unknown.

“Why did I come here?” she buried her face in her hands.

 _Because deep down you knew you couldn’t bear to part with your father and brother_ her inner voice answered her.

“If I had stayed I would’ve been killed by reapers, but, this just feels like a mistake, it’s all going wrong. Maybe I was just never meant to wake up.”

No one answered her, obviously. She sighed and ran her hands through her hair.

“I need to do something,” Sara whispered. She eyed the guns on the wall and ran to her belongings, rummaging through and finding a small tool-kit. It was basic, but it would do. She walked up and down the rows of her father’s guns and picked the shittiest one.  

She laid it all on the table, and pulled the massive armchair closer and began to work, flexing her tech muscles, “what can I do with the shittiest pistol in the galaxy?” Sara asked aloud, eyeing the predator M-3 in her hands, “I could improve recoil, or increase damage…man…this is gonna be so shit.”

It was almost like being at home in her room…if she imagined hard enough she could picture it. Her father, down in his workshop tinkering on his _super-secret stuff_ that she now knew to be SAM, her mother pottering around with her nose in a book, Scott in the lounge room with the television volume on high as he watched the latest biotiball tournament and Goya lounging on Sara’s bed, heavily researching archaeology.

Thinking of Goya bought a wave of sadness over her again, but a knock startled Sara back to the present. She sighed internally, _let them in,_ thinking it would be Scott to bring her more bad news. Instead, she saw a familiar angara stride in.

“Sara!” Jaal cried happily, a lopsided grin of pure joy on his face.  

“Jaal,” Sara breathed with relief, grateful that it wasn’t her brother.

“I just – stars,” Jaal pointed down at the assortment of parts she had laid out on the table. Sara flushed with embarrassment and started to collect the parts up.

“Sorry about that,” Sara apologized quickly.

Jaal sat down in the chair next to her, “no no, this is one of my _favourite_ things to do!” he crowed happily.

“Really?” Sara asked incredulously.

“Yes! I love pulling things apart and figuring them out,” Jaal explained, “I’ll have to show you one day but I have a kett sniper rifle that I’ve modded myself.”

“I’d love to see it,” Sara said and Jaal smiled in response, she had to suppress a giggle as Jaal puffed his chest out.

“What are you doing?” Jaal asked.

“I pulled out the shittiest gun and was trying to do something to make it better,” Sara explained, “I needed the distraction.”

“Is everything alright?”

Sara fitted the dampeners back in place, “hm? Oh yeah, just a lot of adjustment…” she didn’t feel like getting into the gritty details of the reapers, plus she didn’t want to scare Jaal, “I used to do this a lot back home, I love my tech.”

Jaal looked positively thrilled at her words, and went into a detailed description of tech and gun parts that he had taken apart and put together, not sometimes in the right way either.

“Wait a second – you destroyed the hot water system in your family home?”

“I did,” Jaal laughed, “my true mother then decided she needed to get me parts I could fiddle with so I wouldn’t destroy anything else.”

“Did that work?”

“Hm, no,” Jaal answered.

Sara chortled; as much as she loved touring the Nexus with Jaal – she enjoyed the relative simplicity of working on tech with him. She loved that she and Jaal had a mutual hobby; and was enjoying working alongside him.

“Scott doesn’t realise how lucky he is,” Sara mumbled absent-mindedly.  

“Hm?” Jaal asked, eyeing her curiously.

Sara blushed, “oh…I just mean he’s so lucky to have such a good crew. I was just thinking about it…I feel lonely at times here.”

Jaal put the parts back on the table and lay a hand on Sara’s shoulder, “You’re already a part of our crew Sara; you’re never alone. If you ever feel alone, we are always here for you.”

Sara smiled at him, “thank you Jaal. That means a lot.”

They continued to work and swap stories, but the lack of natural light made it hard for Sara to tell time.  Eventually she looked at her watch and realised they were nearing the evening cycle, “shit – Jaal, do you want to grab something to eat?” she paused, “do you actually consume human food?”

“Lexi has run a full scan of what I can and cannot consume; it is just that I am not a fan of it.”

“What do you normally eat?”

“Paste.”

“Paste?”

“It’s easy to make and economical; your galaxy’s obsession with food is bizarre to me.”

“Huh, interesting,” Sara nodded in satisfaction.

“I didn’t realise it was so late, I’m not even tired,” Jaal replied, getting to his feet and he and Sara exited the room.

“You’ve probably got jet-lag,” Sara laughed.

“What is ‘jet-lag’?” Jaal asked curiously, “Is this another idiom?”

Sara paused, “Uh…kind of?”

“All of you humans speak in idioms, it’s irritating,” Jaal said seriously, but his smirk gave him away that he wasn’t truly irritated.

“It’s an old human term,” Sara explained, “before space flight we would travel by jets that were very slow; and when you’d go to another timezone your body clock would still be adjusting, we’d call it ‘jet-lag’.”

“Ohhhh,” Jaal said in recognition, “yes; the Tempest’s cycle was in the middle of the day.”

“There you go,” Sara confirmed.

Jaal grinned at her – his familiar lopsided smile, and she grinned back. It was so easy with Jaal, so natural. She couldn’t get over how it could be so effortless with a being that was separated from her species by 2.5 million light years.

 _Maybe_ _you were supposed to come here after all_ the little voice in the back of her head told her, and as she looked at Jaal whom was deciding what human cuisine he was going to give a try, that idea wasn’t hard to disagree with.

xXx

“Sara!”

Sara turned to see her brother hurrying out of the tram to catch up with her as she made her way back to her room.

“What’s up?” she asked, “I thought you’d left.”

“Just about to, but I have a final meeting with Tann before we leave. I was wondering if you wanted to tag along?”

“I’m allowed in on your super-secret Pathfinder business?” Sara cocked an eyebrow, but she was excited – her first real glimpse into Scott’s life as pathfinder.

“Well, technically, you’re my successor if I die or I’m unfit for duty,” Scott rubbed the back of his neck, his confidence waning.

“Since when?”

“Since a few days ago,” Scott replied carefully, and frowned at Sara’s expression, “shit I should’ve asked.”

“A heads up would’ve been nice,” Sara scowled. What was with everyone in this galaxy wanting to make crucial decisions for her, or lying to her because they felt she couldn’t handle it? “I don’t know about pathfinder…” Sara trailed off.

“Don’t worry sis, I’ll be fine – Tann just wanted to have a successor named.”

“Shouldn’t that be Cora?”

“Due to the nature of my implants, it would be easier to transfer to someone who is related to me,” Scott explained, “it’ll be fine, I doubt you’ll be called upon. Plus, no one knows about mum yet…and I’d rather keep it that way for now.”

“Right,” Sara muttered as they boarded the tram and arrived in Operations. Sara followed Scott up the ramp and through the building to step into a huge office.  

Scott nodded to a salarian who chirped back with a high-pitched “good morning”, and they ascended into a very spacious room with a view down one of the arms of the station.

“Oh _wow,_ ” Sara felt her breath catch in her chest at the sight, instant nostalgia overwhelming her as she thought of the Citadel. She stared in wonder around the room at the different tribute monuments and pictures of the colonies: the desert worlds of Eos and Elaaden, the ice world of Voeld and the shithole that was Kadara. Scott had a right to be smug; he had done a good job.

Sara eyed a salarian, asari and turian deep in conversation at a round table and suspected they must be the other pathfinders. The salarian struck her as very old, and must’ve had a wealth of experience especially to be considered a worthy successor to Raeka, the turian on the other hand looked young and fresh, while the asari had a rather unusual expression of smugness mixed with surliness.

“Ah, Pathfinder!” a nasally voice called out, and Sara snapped up to see a blue salarian descend from the highest desk in the room, _inferiority complex_ , Sara thought immediately.

“Tann, this is my sister Sara,” Scott introduced her, and Sara took his hand – his grip was pathetic.

Sara was correct about the group that they were the pathfinders. She formally met Hayjer, Avitus and Sarissa – none of them original pathfinders. Sara couldn’t help but wonder what Raeka, Macen and Matriarch Ishara were like.

“What’s _she_ doing here?” a cold voice drawled, and Sara’s head snapped to a grumpy human woman entering the room, trailed by a turian and krogan.

“Addison, this is my sister – and Sara this is Foster Addison, Tiran Kandros and Nakmor Kesh,” Scott indicated the human woman, turian and krogan respectively.

Addison eyed her suspiciously, “that still doesn’t answer my question, Ryder.”

“As I’m sure Tann has informed you, Sara is my successor should I be unable to serve as pathfinder.”

At this Addison let out a humourless laugh, “your successor? Sara has been in a coma for six months and is unfit for active duty, let alone has absolutely no training.”

“I approved it,” Tann jumped in, and Addison’s cold gaze lightened considerably when her eyes fell on Tann. _I wonder if they’ve fucked in here_ Sara thought to herself.

‘Addison has been known to frequent this office on regular occasions: three times as often as any other Nexus employee’ SAM replied on her private channel. At this Sara slapped a hand to her mouth to suppress a giggle.

“You okay?” Scott hissed in her ear.

“Oh yeah,” Sara replied, attempting to control her laughter.

“Both Scott and SAM have informed me that it would be easier if the pathfinder were to be related to Scott because of the nature of his implants,” Tann explained.

“Hmph,” Addison folded her arms tight against her chest, “we don’t have nepotism in the Initiative, although apparently that was waved for the _Ryder_ clan.”

Sara winced as Kandros spoke up, “Sara could be trained with my APEX teams once she has recovered.”

“It’s not exactly a binding contract anyway,” Sara shrugged.

“We’ll discuss this when we know more on Sara’s condition from Dr Carlyle,” Tann said in a tone that meant it was final.

“Anyway, can we please talk about the mission at hand?” Scott asked the group, and they nodded attentively.

Thankfully the meeting passed quickly, and Sara and Scott left together.

“I would’ve told Addison and Tann to fuck off a long time ago,” Sara commented as they re-entered the tram, “especially Tann. Christ how did he ever end up in charge of this whole thing?”

“The eighth in line,” Scott replied simply.

“No doubt,” Sara snorted, “and Addison is an absolute bitch. Yeah, I’d admit I wouldn’t have chosen me either but she didn’t have to be so awful about it.”

“Oh you should’ve seen her when I turned up. Instead of being grateful after their 14 month isolation it was accusation after accusation. Sorry I’m not my father, yeesh,” Scott explained, “boy was I happy to prove her wrong.”

“In many ways, I’m glad the situation wasn’t reversed,” Sara started, “I don’t think I would’ve coped.”

Scott made a noise in the back of his throat, “me either.”  

Sara cocked an eyebrow, but didn’t press further as they made it back to the Docking Bay of the Nexus.

“I can’t believe you’re really leaving,” Sara said, eyeing the Tempest out of the corner of her eye.

“I know,” Scott replied; his voice trembled slightly, “I…shit.” They had always been bad at goodbyes.

“Finish the Archon,” Sara smiled, “we didn’t flee from reapers to get taken out by kett.”

Scott laughed as he held out his hand, “damn right.” Sara took it and they did their dorky ‘bro-fist-handshake’ _the very first in Andromeda_ Sara noted.

“Oh stars!” a voice called out and Sara and Scott turned to see Jaal running from the cultural centre toward them.

“Jaal? I told everyone to be at the ship hours ago,” Scott said sternly, and Jaal recoiled slightly.

“Sorry,” Jaal replied, not meeting Scott’s eye while Scott folded his arms in exasperation. Jaal was flicking his eyes between Sara and Scott as if debating on doing something.

Seeming to make up his mind, he turned to Sara and before she could say anything Jaal enveloped her in his arms, desperation of sorts evident in his body language. Sara didn’t know what to do, but patted his back awkwardly. In the background, Scott’s eyes were wide in shock, and he turned sharply and hit his leg on the half-wall that viewed the Tempest.

Jaal let her go, and she sighed internally that the awkwardness was over.   

“Stay safe,” Sara told him, and he nodded, “and when you come back we’ll check out the cultural centre?”

“You haven’t been?”

“No,” Sara laughed, “thought you could show me your favourite stuff in there.”

“Sure,” Jaal’s face lightened and his stance seemed to ease slightly.

Sara smiled, “go give the Archon hell for me! Both of you!”

“Sure will,” Scott saluted. Sara watched them retreat into the port that would take them to the Tempest, Jaal’s large frame dwarfing Scott’s in comparison. She smiled after them, and watched the Tempest fly off, a longing in her heart telling her to follow.

xXx

“That was damn fine,” a young recruit commented as Sara took the head off of a kett from 100 metres.

“Thanks,” Sara smiled at him _,_ swapping her sniper rifle for a pistol and taking aim at a closer simulation kett’s head. It was her first shooting session, and only she and the young recruit, whom she remembered was named Dean, were the only two ‘alive’.

Having real armour and holding a real gun – albeit with blank rounds – felt like a massive improvement. She didn’t feel useless anymore as she dodged in and out of cover firing her pistol. She cloaked and crept up behind the final sim, sticking a grenade to the back of his head and using her jet pack to boost out of the way.

“Still got it!” she shouted as the grenade exploded, and the simulation withered away.

A bell signalled to end the session, and Sara wiped the sweat from her brow as she handed her weapon back to the drilling instructor.

“Nice work Ryder,” he nodded stiffly, and Sara took that as the best compliment she was going to get.

“What have you got planned?” Dean asked as they left the facility together.

“A hot shower and a good book,” Sara laughed, “I’ll see you next time!”

“Later,” he called out as he left. Sara hummed as she approached the tram that would take her back to the Hyperion. It was business as usual from what she observed; the artificial lighting was bright as ever and everyone seemed relaxed.

She had heard no word from Scott since he had left about two days ago, but Sara wasn’t worried. She was excited and nervous for him and his crew. In one way or another, they were going to end this thing. All she could do was train hard, and based on her last session she knew she had.

 _That shower calls my name_ Sara thought.

The doors whizzed open to darkness with faint lighting scattered throughout. Sara squinted, noting the emergency lighting was on. As she stepped off the tram it shut off behind her. Around her, panicking people were running back and forth screaming instructions to each other. Sharp gunfire sounded nearby, and Sara ducked instinctively.

“What the fuck is going on?” Sara said aloud, people oblivious to her.

“Sara,” SAM called to her, “the pathfinder is in trouble. The Archon has disabled my access to him; I need you to provide it.”

“SAM node?” Sara asked.

“The Archon has boarded and is currently at SAM node, proceed to these co-ordinates – and arm yourself.”

Sara halted; what if the Archon had control of SAM and was leading her into a trap?

“Once you do this is unlikely that you will avoid capture, they will be alerted to your presence,” SAM explained and Sara rolled her eyes, but SAM added, “but it will save your brother’s life.”

“Show me where to go,” Sara said.

SAM guided her through the building; and a few dead kett later she was at the access point. She had done it; she had secured SAM back to her brother. She smiled at her victory, but turned to see an abundance of kett had surrounded her armed to the teeth and pointing their guns directly at her heart. These weren’t the simulations that she just battled – these were the real thing.

Sara dropped her weapon, and raised her arms – she did not have biotics and there was no foreseeable way out of this. Even if she was well decked and in top shape she knew it would be a tough battle.

_Fuck this isn’t good._

A huge kett entered the room, and Sara felt the blood run from her face as she stared up at it. It was big, with a horrifyingly adorable face and a basketball hoop coming out from the back of its head. This had to be the Archon.

 _Oh fuck, this_ really _isn’t good._

“Sara Ryder,” its mouth twisted into a smile and Sara shuddered. The next thing she knew was the kett was dragging her through the Hyperion toward the bridge.  

Having revival interrupted and being put into a coma: check.

Getting kidnapped by the worst alien in the cluster: check.

Well, shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, shit - Sara's in trouble! Just to let everyone know now I'm skipping over the torture stuff because I find I don't need to explain it - I think we all know what happens. Also romance fans hang in there! Now the main story is over Jaal and Sara will continue to bond!
> 
> To answer the question of 'who the heck is Goya?' - Goya is seen in the first part to this series 'The Second Beginning'. She is Sara's asari partner whom she was with for seven years before leaving her behind to go to Andromeda.


	5. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara has survived the Archon's attack, and gathers her strength on Meridian. She is determined to prove that she is ready for the real Andromeda!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, here's the next one. Yikes did this chapter give me some grief! I've re-written it three times and chopped and changed scenes. One important scene got pulled and I'm adding it later on. Boy, anyway, I hope it flows okay. Enjoy guys, and let me know how I'm going!

_The Archon smiled at her as she writhed in pain in front of him, her implants the target of his desires. He paced in front of her, taunting Scott while torturing her._

_Make it stop. Make it stop._

_A shadow was there; she could see her brother’s N7 armour even in the darkness._

_“SCOTT!” Sara called out, trying to get his attention. The shadow of her brother stepped forward to reveal it wasn’t her brother at all. Inside his armour was a kett, but the kett didn’t look like the others – it was softer and had his bright blue eyes which were piercing her very soul._

“NO,” Sara screamed out and sat bolt upright in bed. She gripped the sheets and eased her breathing as her surroundings materialised. The sensor lights flicked on with her movement, and revealed her room looking as normal as ever.

“Fuck,” Sara breathed heavily, trembling slightly as the sweat rolled down her neck.

It had been many weeks since she had been kidnapped by the Archon. She knew she was safe and sound on Meridian, and that he was dead but it still didn’t ease her anxiety. However, nothing could take the _hatred_ that she felt for this place out of her. Meridian was her torture chamber, where she had nearly died and nearly watched her brother die.

She hated it more than anything here.

Yet, no one wanted to move her. Harry was here, all of her therapists were here, it was considered impractical to move her and none of her medical team wanted to leave. She knew she was improving, but she felt she could improve faster on somewhere like the Nexus where she didn’t feel the constant reminder of the torture she had endured.   

But, despite it all she was improving. She was running again, usually she would jog around Meridian. She was also undertaking weight training; which had bought her muscles to the surface again.

She stretched and got out of bed, there was no way she could sleep now. Her clock told her that Meridian was mostly through its night-cycle and nearing dawn. She shuffled over to the coffee maker and poured a cup to ease into the morning routine.

Her head pounded, and she grasped at it. _Not again._

“I wish these would go away,” Sara grumbled out-loud. Ever since being tortured Sara had a constant headache. Some days were worse than others, and the pain ranged from a mild ache to a serious migraine she had experienced the other day. For her, most of the time it was a dull ache that just never went away.  

‘Should I flag for Dr Carlyle that you’re continuing to experience headaches?’ SAM asked her.

Sara sighed, “I suppose so.” She didn’t want to worry anyone, but she had a feeling SAM would tell the doctor anyway.

‘That is a correct assumption’

Sara rolled her eyes as she flicked through her omni-tool, noting that today was her free day. She was glad; therapy was exhausting after a while. No news was good news in terms of cluster-wide info, and Sara finally checked the ship roster for the day to see what ships would be flying out and returning.

_Tempest – Docking approx. midday local time._

_Captain: Ryder, S._

“Yes!” Sara said as she took a delicate sip of her coffee. Scott had left a few days after they had secured Meridian, and had been gone for several weeks. Emails were nice, but nothing beat the real thing.

Speaking of emails, her omni-tool blipped and opening the folder saw a new email from Jaal waiting for her.

_From: Ama Darav, J.  
To: Ryder, S. Ryder, S. _

_Sara,_

_Great news! We have finished up our newest round of work at Aya and will be returning to Meridian for a few days. I can’t wait to see you!_

_Jaal._

She smiled; Sara had been communicating with Jaal a lot lately. Her hard work on Meridian was made all the more easier with frequent messages from the angara waiting in her inbox.

Her omni-tool blipped again.

_From: Ama Darav, J.  
To: Ryder, S._

_I may have accidentally sent this to your brother as well. I am still learning how to work Milky Way technology._

_Jaal._

_Why do you and your brother have the same initial?_

Sara chuckled softly; this was not an uncommon mistake and it didn’t help that she and Scott also had the same middle name initial. Albeit she did not receive top secret emails about the Initiative or about pathfinder business, but several personal emails meant for Scott had somehow made it to her inbox including one from an asari reporter, two from an angaran curator and a very detailed descriptive one from Vetra which included details from an intimate night the two spent together. Sara had learnt a lot about turian anatomy from that email.

_From: Ryder, S.  
To: Ama Darav, J._

_Hey Jaal,_

_Don’t worry, happens_ all _the time. The other day Vetra sent me a very – personal – email about Scott and her, it was awkward to say the least._

_Look forward to seeing you soon, I’m getting so bored!_

_Sara._

_PS: Blame my parents for us having the same initial!_

She made her way to the dining hall, an extra spring in her step as she thought about the coming day ahead. She couldn’t wait to see Scott again, and Jaal, and hopefully she’d get to see everyone else too.

xXx

Midday took a long time. Sara spent her morning eating breakfast extra slowly, carefully chewing each bite. After that she did several turns around the Hyperion. Finally she got so bored she made her way to the docking bay and loitered creepily. Every now and then someone would need a box moved or a hand to process a ship and she’d hover to lend a hand. The sun beat down on her, perfectly pleasant as always but she noted the heat triggered her headache. It was tolerable, it would be tolerable; nothing was stopping her seeing Scott today.

Ships were landing left and right, but soon enough, a sleek familiar shaped ship landed on a bay that was closest to her. She approached, and noted the ‘Tempest’ written on the side. She bounded to it eagerly, waiting with excitement for the first glimpse of her brother.

After several minutes, Scott Ryder stepped out of the ship and greeted some of the docking crew.

She stayed silent, wanting him to notice her. Sure enough, he looked around expectantly and his face lit up when he spotted her.

“Sara!” he cried in an undignified way, almost running to her and pulling her into a tight hug.

“Scotty!” Sara’s replied, her voice muffled as she was squashed against his chest.

They broke apart and merely smiled at one another. She and Scott weren’t the same without each other – Sara felt like half of her was missing when he left, but the half always found its way back when he was next to her once more.

“So,” Scott began, “I think it’s time I introduced you to my crew! What do you think?”

“Definitely!” Sara piped up; meeting the fabled crew that had made Scott’s first few months in Andromeda bearable had been at the top of her list since waking up.

The oddest group made their way down the ramp of the Tempest and Scott gathered them together. It wasn’t what Sara would’ve expected in a crew, but she noted they all looked content.

Sara smiled shyly when she and Scott approached, it felt strange to greet a bunch of people that Scott knew but she didn’t; the exceptions being Cora, Liam, Vetra and Jaal. Jaal stood in the back, and had his familiar lopsided grin on his face. He waved at her, and she waved back.

“So, going from left to right – this is Drack, our veteran krogan,” Scott unnecessarily indicated the very large intimidating krogan who was wearing bones on his armour.

“Nice to meet you kid,” he shook her arm rather gently for such a large being. He had a very old, almost cracked look to his features, but there was something Sara liked about him.  

“My other ground team member whom you haven’t met is Peebee,” Scott pointed to a flighty looking asari standing toward the back. She stepped forward, looking merely bored with the proceedings. Sara recognised her instantly as the asari she had seen that day on the Hyperion when she had visited the Nexus for the first time.  

“Nice to meet ya!” Peebee greeted her happily, but Sara noticed an air of impatience as if she had more important things to do, which she probably did. Sara shook her hand nonetheless; she couldn’t help but note that Peebee was attractive, she did have a soft spot for asari after all.

“I hear you’re the one to talk to about remtech,” Sara tried her best to make conversation, and Peebee lit up like a Christmas tree.

“Yes! We so need to talk!” She was practically bouncing with excitement, and Sara turned to Scott who looked rather pleased with himself.

“Okay, so, this is our other asari and doctor on board; Dr Lexi T’Perro,” Scott indicated a much more conservative asari on the other side decked out in standard issue medical gear. She had a straight-backed straight laced look that reminded Sara of Goya; for sure this asari had to have a turian father.

“Nice to meet you,” Lexi held out her hand which Sara took, and she was far more polite and gentle with her movements over sporadic Peebee.

“I’m Gil Brodie,” a red-headed man stepped forward, “engineer of the Tempest.” Sara took his hand, he had warm eyes and a soothing expression, Sara already liked him.

“He also cleans everyone else out in poker,” Scott added, “everyone.”

“You cannot win,” Liam warned her.

“Rightio,” Sara laughed and Gil winked.

“Anywho, this is Suvi Anwar, our science officer. She lives on our bridge,” Scott continued.

“I don’t think I live on yer bridge,” a red-headed woman with aqua eyes stepped forward, “but it’s nice to meet yeh Sara,” her thick Scottish accent was soothing to Sara’s ear, and Sara couldn’t quite believe how _adorable_ Suvi was; _it’s the accent_ her brain told her. She had always had a soft spot for accents from the United Kingdom.

“And lucky last is Kallo Jath!” Scott indicated a tan coloured salarian, “our pilot.”

“Pleasure!” he said warmly in a very typical sounding salarian voice, and Sara shook his hand. He was very tall and gangly with big black eyes. Kallo struck Sara as very friendly and welcoming.

“And you’ve met the others, yes?” Scott asked.

“We’re ‘the others’ now?” Vetra teased, placing her hands on her hips. The crew burst into laughter at her words.

“Oh my darling Vetra,” Scott teased right back, “You know you are my number one.”

“ _Sure_ ,” Vetra chuckled, but made her way over to Scott, bumping her fist against Sara’s as she did so, and threw her arm around Scott’s shoulders.

Sara chuckled, “yes, I’ve met _the others_ as you say,” Sara replied, “it’s nice to see you all again,” she said to Cora, Liam, Vetra and Jaal who smiled back at her.  Liam and Cora shook her hand, but when she got to Jaal he hugged her with so much enthusiasm that her feet left the ground.

Several members of the crew chuckled as he placed her back on the ground, “geez Jaal!” Peebee called out, “don’t crush her!”

“Wouldn’t be an angara if you didn’t almost crush someone every week, eh Jaal?” Gil elbowed Jaal in the ribs, and Jaal rolled his eyes.

“Fuck over,” Jaal said to Gil. The crew were silent for a few beats, before breaking into laughter. Sara was confused, but still smiling from the infectious laughter. Gil had curled over himself while Peebee was hanging off his shoulder.

“It’s ‘fuck off’ Jaal,” Liam corrected through his laughter, a hand over his stomach.

“Right…” Jaal replied, a blue blush tinging his cheeks.

“Ohhhhh,” Sara clued in, and a new fit of laughter sounded from her obvious confusion.

“Welcome to the Tempest,” Suvi told her as they all made their way into the Hyperion. Sara grinned; she had a feeling she was going to fit in well with this bunch of misfits.

xXx

Days were passing quickly now that Scott and the crew were here, and Sara hadn’t felt this happy since the Milky Way. When she wasn’t with her brother, one of the crew had taken her under their wing to do or talk about something.

Her physical therapy continued, and one morning Cora decided to join her for her run around Meridian. They met up with a group of eager runners and jogged forth, Sara enjoying having a familiar face by her side while she exercised.

Sara stopped to catch her breath, pressing her fingers to her neck to check her pulse, “120 – not bad,” Sara panted as she looked ahead of her at the others.

“Come on Sara!” Cora called out as she ran past, “there’s only a few hundred metres left.”

“Okay, okay,” Sara laughed, taking a huge gulp from her wattle bottle as she hurried to catch up with Cora. The two women jogged together. It was pleasant, Meridian buzzed around them and Sara concentrated on their footfalls squelching in the dirt underneath.

It did feel nice to be active on a planet again, even if it was the planet that felt like a prison. They made it back to the Hyperion; Cora looking no worse for wear while Sara panted slightly, “Damn Cora,” Sara got her words out through breaths, “you’re so fit.”

“So are you! You’ll get there, you’re doing so well,” Cora patted her on the back and Sara smiled, grateful that someone thought so. Sara couldn’t wait for a shower and some pain meds for her headache which hummed in the background.

“I’ll catch you later,” Sara called out to Cora as she entered the atrium of the Hyperion, taking another swig from her water bottle. Scott was standing idly with Harry and Sara raised her eyebrow, wondering what they were speaking about.

“Sara! C’mere sec!” Scott called out.

“What’s up?”

“So, I’ve been speaking with Scott and SAM, and today I’m going to approve your reassignment,” Harry explained.  

“Wait – what?” Sara rounded on her brother, “why didn’t you keep me in the loop?”

“I kinda wanted to surprise you?” Scott said awkwardly, but hesitated under his sister’s glare, “I should’ve told you. But, I’ve been organising for weeks with Tann and Harry. Tann wanted you on Prodromos – something about a Ryder on a colony providing morale.”

“Yeah…no thanks,” Sara wrinkled her nose, “that sounds boring.”

He and Harry laughed and Scott continued, “Exactly what I said you were going to say. So, Harry and I argued for you to come with me – having two Ryders side-by-side will be much better in our opinion and definitely help morale."

Sara let out an inhuman high-pitched noise, “I’m finally going to actually see this galaxy!”

“Hell yeah you are,” Scott smiled, “I can’t wait to have you by my side again.”

“What’s the go with my health plan…stuff,” Sara waved her arm to try and find the words.

“Dr T’Perro will be monitoring your current physical and psychological health while you’re aboard the Tempest and will be sending regular updates to me. If issues arise we will organise an alternative or take you off of the ground crew,” Harry began.

“You’ll be on ground crew on a rotating roster part-time at first,” Scott explained, “but when your health improves you’ll be there more often.”

“Okay, cool, that’s fine,” Sara nodded.

“You told her yet?” a voice chirped out of nowhere, and Sara turned to see Peebee and Jaal approaching.

“Sure have,” Scott smiled and Peebee cheered.

“Great! I finally have someone to discuss remtech with! You studied protheans right?” Peebee asked excitedly.

“Sure did,” Sara smiled and Peebee rubbed her hands together with enthusiasm.

“You’re going to _love_ remtech!”

Sara noticed Peebee and Jaal both run their eyes down her torso, and looking down Sara noticed she wasn’t leaving much to the imagination. She was in a sports bra, exercise leggings that ended at her knees and sneakers – nothing else. She blushed and very non-subtly folded her arms across her torso.

“When are we heading out?” Jaal asked, his eyes snapping away from Sara to Scott.

“It should be tomorrow I believe,” Scott replied and Jaal nodded in satisfaction.

“Wouldn’t want to miss the party!” Sara said and Scott eyed her with suspicion, “they’ve been going on about it for weeks, the massive party to say thank you to the Tempest!”

“Oh please no,” the blood ran from Scott’s face, “really?”

“It’ll be fine!” Sara dismissed casually.

“I hate parties,” Scott muttered.

Peebee nudged him in the ribs, “it’ll be fun!”

The day passed quickly and when night fell the party began. Many of the Hyperion’s residents had gathered, along with the crew of the Tempest. Sara even noticed some familiar faces in the crowd; Kandros and Kesh had made it, as well as the female angara she had seen after being rescued.

After some boring speeches in which thankfully no one called on Sara to speak but left her brother stammering for a good ten minutes the party began. Sara sat in the corner sipping serrice ice brandy which she had swiped against doctors’ orders and watching everyone.

The Tempest crew were easily visible in the crowd; Peebee was tearing up the dancefloor with Suvi and Cora. Drack and Vetra were at a table, having what looked like a light-hearted conversation while Scott, Gil and Liam were sitting at a table in the corner enjoying a poker game – although she used “enjoying” loosely, only Gil looked to be actually enjoying it. Jaal was over at another table, having a conversation with several other angara. Lexi and Kallo were entirely absent, but since they were married to their work she was hardly surprised.

While enjoying the occasional party, this one wasn’t doing well for her. Her brain was aching due to the pounding music, and the alcohol churned in her stomach. She pushed it away, and made her way to an exit, hoping she could clear her thoughts and ease the humming headache.

Sara slipped out into the cool air of Meridian’s night, at once her brain felt better. She breathed in, letting the air filled with the scent of dirt and flora fill her lungs and the night air tickled her skin.

“It’s my first night outside since the Milky Way,” Sara remarked. She hadn’t experienced a real night outside since she and Scott watched the aurora on Earth.  She stepped closer to the cliff, and sat down, legs dangling over the edge.

Well, ‘real’, being figurative given Meridian’s bizarre nature – but angara were real even though they were created by the Jardaan.

Speaking of angara, she heard footsteps approaching, and turned to see Jaal making his way toward her.

“Are you alright?” Jaal asked; worry evident in his tone.

“Yeah,” Sara replied, patting the spot next to her and Jaal took a seat, “just not feeling the party vibe tonight.”

Jaal chuckled, “I understand.”

They sat in silence for a while, Sara enjoying the friendly company. The thrum of the music and babble of conversation could be heard, but it was quiet enough for Sara to consider the night peaceful.  

“Are you looking forward to joining the Tempest?” Jaal asked.

“Yes, very much so,” Sara replied, “I can’t wait to leave this rock and explore some _real_ planets and have some adventures.”

“It’ll be an honour to have you aboard,” Jaal said.

“Any funny stories of late?”

“Hmmm…oh! One! So, I taught Liam what he thought to be an angaran folk song. The other day I caught him singing it to Kallo and Suvi on the bridge,” Jaal’s tone was mischievous.

“I take it it’s not an ordinary folk song?”

“No,” Jaal replied, “Suvi and Kallo are still married by angaran custom.”

Sara choked on her laughter, with Jaal joining in.

“I’m not letting Liam sing to me when someone else is still in the room,” Sara wiped a tear from her eye.

“Good idea,” Jaal agreed, “I still need to find out what the reverse song is.”

Sara chortled, and they fell into an easy silence once more. The night was dark and cool around them, but Sara noted that the sky had lightened ever so slightly.

“Sunrise should be close,” Jaal stated.

“Ooh I haven’t seen one of those yet,” Sara commented idly.

Jaal did a double take, “Wait – ever?”

“No, no,” Sara laughed, “in Andromeda.”

“That…that makes a lot more sense,” Jaal said and Sara giggled, “are you alright if I share this moment with you?”

“Of course Jaal!” Sara replied, giving him a warm smile, “that would be lovely.” The only light came from the distant ones from the Hyperion, but even in the low light she didn’t miss Jaal’s lopsided grin.  

“How does sunrise even work on Meridian?” Sara asked idly.

Jaal shrugged, “no idea.”

Sara yawned widely, the lateness of the hour plus her headache taking its toll. Her eyes drooped, and her head came to rest on Jaal’s shoulder. Her eyes widened in shock at what she had done, but before she could move Jaal’s arm came up and curled around her shoulders.

“Don’t let me fall asleep,” Sara mumbled, stifling another yawn but her eyes closed against her will.

“Look,” Jaal whispered, his voice sounding close. Sara opened her eyes, and a faint orange glow on the horizon greeted them. She sat up a little straighter, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, but Jaal’s arm didn’t move.

Together they watched the sky change colour – from deep purples to oranges to yellows to the brilliance of the sun as it broke the horizon. Sara snapped some photos from her omni-tool, though photos never looked as good as the real thing.

The sunrise cast warm rays and shadows over Meridian, and the sight pulled the memory of Australia to the forefront of her mind. One morning, she and Scott had gotten up early to sit on the beach to watch the sunrise on the water; it had been one of the most breathtaking sights she could remember.

But this? This beat any Earth sunrise.

“This is-” Jaal took a sharp intake of breath.

“-special,” Sara finished for him, and sighed happily.

The two of them waited until the sun had well and truly cleared the horizon, with the sky now a homely blue before Sara moved enough for Jaal to move his arm. Once it was gone Sara missed the warmth. She stood, and brushed off the back of her pants.

The Hyperion was unusually quiet for this time of day as they moved through. Sara spotted a few familiar faces; Kallo had made an appearance and was sitting at a table looking utterly miserable and holding what looked like tea while Drack sat nearby staring off into the distance.

She finally made it to her quarters after a slow walk through, Jaal shadowing her every step of the way. With her recent health issues, he had every right to be. They were in front of the door to her room.

“Thank you Jaal, that was a lovely first sunrise,” Sara said.

“You are most welcome,” Jaal replied.

They hovered awkwardly once more, Sara still not having the greetings and farewells down pat just yet; Jaal hesitated for a brief moment, and then leant in toward her. For one wild second, Sara thought he was about to kiss her. However, he didn’t. Instead he placed his forehead on hers – their noses bumping together and one of his hands rested gently on the back of her neck.

Sara closed her eyes, breathing in his scent and trying to cement the memory in her mind. Jaal pulled away, and she couldn’t help but smile at him – a faint blush tinging her cheeks. He smiled his lopsided grin back, and without a word turned on his heel and left her standing stupidly in front of her quarters. Shaking back to reality, Sara entered.  

A loud snore greeted her ears, and she startled only to see Scott, Liam, Gil and Vetra passed out on couches. Vetra and Scott were cuddled on once couch, while Gil had claimed the other one leaving a pants-less Liam to lie on the floor. Sara rolled her eyes good-naturedly, but was very grateful they had left the bed for her even in their drunken state. She snuggled into the covers and for the first time in nearly a month managed to drift away rather quickly: whether it was the familiarity of people she cared about in her space, or her sunrise with Jaal, she wasn’t sure.

Maybe it was both.

“WHERE’S MY PANTS?”

Sara startled to see Liam stumbling around her cabin looking for his pants, and Gil roaring with laughter in the background. Scott and Vetra had been woken too; Scott had rolled off of the couch in surprise leaving Vetra half-asleep fumbling around. This fiasco left Gil laughing even harder.

Her clock told her it was almost the night cycle. She had slept the entire day.

It was the first time she hadn’t awoken screaming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I may have taken some liberty with how Meridian's day/night cycles work. Since Meridian is covered by that protective shield, I've gathered that it wouldn't actually receive real sunlight. But, I also feel like the Jardaan would've wanted a normalish day/night cycle for their homebase seed world. 
> 
> So, in my headcanon, the planet simulates a sunrise and sunset - which is why it's so breath-takingly beautiful. I can't find any info that Meridian has no day/night cycle, but if anyone can find something let me know!


	6. Demons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The adventure in Andromeda begins, and Sara's first mission goes terribly wrong. However the crew picks up afterward with a little party game.

The room she had called home for many months was so bare, and Sara couldn’t help the twinge of sadness she got as she gazed around it. All of her belongings were piled haphazardly in the corner, she was holding the model Normandy in her hands, debating whether to take it or not. Her father’s room on the Hyperion had been her home in Andromeda. While she was excited to leave and begin adventuring, she was sad too. In many ways, the Hyperion was all she knew.

_What if they don’t like me?_

“Don’t be stupid,” Sara shook her head. She had just spent the last week with various members of the crew – she was going to be fine.

_What if I’m too incompetent for them?_

This thought rang true for her – while she knew had to wield a weapon she was vastly out of practice. Shooting simulations was not quite the same as a real life being, and the thought of not being good enough haunted her.

The door whizzed open, pulling Sara out of her thoughts and Scott stuck his head in, “you ready?”

Sara sighed and pushed herself off of the bed, “sure am.”

“Meet you there,” he said before the door snapped shut behind him. Sara took one fleeting look before stuffing the model Normandy into her bag, grabbing her belongings and shutting the door on the room forever.

It was relatively quiet on Meridian as she passed through; she felt like a ghost as she made her way to the much busier port outside.  

“What’s going to happen to Dad’s room?” Sara asked as she approached Scott who was waiting for her.

“I’m not sure,” Scott answered, rubbing his neck awkwardly.

She nodded non-committedly but smiled, happiness filling her like a warm drink as she and Scott stepped onto the Tempest. She shrugged her bag over her shoulder and grasped her box of trinkets tightly in her hands: _I’m finally going to see this galaxy_. _My adventure finally begins!_

“Welcome to the tempest!” Scott opened his arms wide to gesture the ship around them. Where they had entered was a rather big area, in the middle sat a Nomad all-terrain vehicle, along with an assortment of boxes and gadgets scattered around.

Jaal emerged from one set of doors on the other side of the spacious room, flicking through his omni-tool.

“Jaal!”

Jaal startled to attention at the sound of his name, and Scott continued “Would you mind showing Sara around the Tempest?”

Sara pouted, “but-,” she had wanted Scott to give her the tour of the ship.

Jaal grimaced as he made his way over, “are you sure?”

Sara sighed, “It’s fine,” she said without enthusiasm.

“I’m so sorry, I have so much work to catch up on – I’ll see you soon,” Scott lightly play-punched Sara on the shoulder, which she didn’t respond to, and he made his way through the door that Jaal had just entered from.

Jaal and Sara locked eyes for several moments before Jaal grinned his usual lopsided smile, “This is exciting! I haven’t shown anyone around because I was the last one on!”

Sara laughed, his good mood was infectious, “okay then, lead the way,” Sara indicated with her hand. The ship was small and sleek, and Jaal showed her through the lower floor. Sara had to admit she was paying more attention to Jaal’s form over his words. She couldn’t get her eyes off the way he moved, and the way his poncho flowed as he walked.

“Sara?”

“Sorry?” Sara zoned back into reality.

“You seem…distracted,” Jaal replied, looking at her curiously.

“Just…” Sara couldn’t find the words, “yeah, distracted. Sorry. Big day and all.”  

“I understand,” Jaal nodded, “as I was saying – this is the crew’s quarters. There’s a message board here, and the bathroom is through here,” he pointed to the door which flicked open to reveal a separate toilet and two communal showers.

_Great_.

“There are four beds and…” Sara counted the crew on her fingers, “twelve of us.”

“We have to spoon – we’re a close crew,” Liam snorted as he entered the room, and approached a notice board between the two sets of bunks.

“Seriously?” Sara asked, not sure whether he was being sarcastic.

“Pfft, no,” Liam laughed and Jaal joined in, his booming laugh echoing in the room.

“Scott sleeps in his quarters. Most of the time he’s joined by a certain turian but even she prefers her room rather than this one. I sleep on my couch, can’t beat my couch.”

“Your couch is disgusting,” Jaal wrinkled his flat nose.

“You’re just jealous,” Liam replied before continuing, “Kallo just…doesn’t sleep? I have no idea where or if he sleeps. Lexi tends to stick to the medical bay and Peebee stays in the escape pod. Drack is way too big to fit in here; he’s normally passed out on the floor of the gallery.”

“And I sleep in the tech bay,” Jaal added.

“So that’s…” Sara went over the numbers in her head again, “oh there’s a free bunk.”

“Top right,” Liam winked at her. Sara placed her bag on the bunk Liam had indicated and turned back to Jaal, “did you say there’s a tech bay?”

“Yes.”

“Oh good!”

“I’ll show you the rest of the ship first,” Jaal said.

The rest of the ship consisted of the bridge, the escape pod and some boring meeting rooms that did have a pretty nice view.

“Here’s the tech bay,” Jaal said as they entered. It was a rather large room, and it was covered in bits of metal and other gadgets. At the end of the room was what looked like a mattress on the floor that was made haphazardly, overall the room felt lived in.

 “So this is your quarters?”

“Yes, at least – no one has kicked me out.”  

“Oh damn,” Sara said, “I really need a place where I can work on my tech.”

“Well, you’re free to work in here,” Jaal said very quickly.

“I wouldn’t be intruding?”

“Not at all!” Jaal said a little too enthusiastically, nevertheless Sara smiled at him and placed her box of trinkets and gadgets she had taken from the Hyperion.

“Scott doesn’t mod stuff?” Sara asked absent-mindedly, but turned to Jaal when he offered no response, he merely cocked an eye-ridge at her.

“Oh right…” Sara trailed off, slapping a hand to her forehead, “he’s biotic!”

“I didn’t know for months.”

“Wait, really?”

“Mmm,” Jaal murmured, suddenly not making eye-contact.

“That’s odd - Scott always made a show of flaunting his biotics, especially to piss me off.”

“You’re not biotic?”

“Nope,” Sara laughed, “not a shred of it. My father forced me to get biotic implants when I was 15 when Scott got his but I’ve never been able to do anything. I don’t even wear an amp.”

“Humans have amps?”

“Yeah?” Sara replied, she turned and held up her ponytail, parting her hair at the bottom of her head to reveal the empty amp port.

“I didn’t realise…I’m only familiar with asari biotics.”

“Are there no other biotic humans on the ship?”

“Cora is…but since I had asked Peebee I just assumed it was all the same,” Jaal shrugged.

“Oh gosh no,” Sara laughed, “asari are way more powerful than humans. Even an L2 biotic has nowhere near the power of an asari.”

“From what I’ve heard, Cora has trained with asari commandos,” Jaal started.

“I think I’ve heard that too,” Sara agreed, “she must have incredible spikes. Damn. Still though, Scott normally brags about his biotics to anyone who will listen – I’m rather stunned.”

“We don’t talk a lot,” Jaal turned away from Sara and pulled a pistol down from the shelf and began to tinker with it.

“Why?”

“It’s…” Jaal started, continuing to fiddle with the gun, “he and I don’t agree most of the time.”

“About?” Sara pressed on, wondering if Jaal would shy away. The impression she had gathered from the Hyperion was that Scott was well-liked and well-respected. But, like anything, there were always cracks below the surface.

“A lot of things,” Jaal said, “mainly to do with my people.”

“Seriously?” Sara asked, sceptical that Scott would be unsympathetic to the angara.

Jaal merely nodded, continuing to fiddle with the gun while Sara leant against the bench, deep in thought, “Scott’s…” Sara struggled to find the words to describe her brother, “I love him, but he can be difficult to get along with at times.”

“Yes!” Jaal said, looking up, “that’s exactly it. He’s a very capable leader from what I’ve seen, I just don’t agree with a lot of his decisions.”

“That’s fair,” Sara nodded, “everyone is not going to like everyone. Just remember, if you ever want to chat about something just come and find me, okay?”

“I will,” Jaal agreed, “thank you Sara; you are kind.”

“No problem,” Sara smiled back, a feeling rising in her gut that she couldn’t describe when her eyes met his. The soothing blue bought memories of the Pacific Ocean back to her, and her body was washed with nostalgia, of longing for a place she could never return to.

She clicked on to the feeling, _Jaal feels like home._

Her stomach sunk.

_Well, this is terrifying._

xXx

The journey to the first planet that Sara would be seeing in Andromeda, Eos, only took a few days but the time seemed to fly on the ship. She was always doing something; whether it was sitting with Suvi and Kallo on the bridge every morning, coffee in hand, to talk about something morally grey to spending time with Peebee in the escape pod meeting Poc and Zap (and getting to adopt Zap for her own personal use) or getting combat tips from Cora and Vetra (with Cora trying to demonstrate how an asari holds a weapon and Vetra adamantly correcting her saying that wouldn’t help Sara as she wasn’t biotic) – in many ways she felt a pang of sadness as the ship landed knowing that the very first part of her Andromeda journey was over.

The crew gathered in the cargo bay and Scott called them all into order. Sara looked her brother up and down, he was decked in full N7 armour but instead of the usual grey and red colour scheme he had coloured it green with a camo pattern. She rolled her eyes, trust her brother to look so pretentious.

She fiddled with the clasps of her standard Initiative armour, noting that she really needed to mod some of her own, and jealously looked at Scott’s again.

“Right, crew!” Scott clapped his hands together as the crew came to attention, “we’re in Prodromos for two nights. I’m taking Drack and Vetra with me on a small scout mission nearby, there’s some disturbance with Advent since we cut their water supply. Sara,” Sara snapped up when Scott said her name, “you’ll be going with Peebee and Jaal to that remnant vault nearby to see if we can dig up anything useful on the Jardaan or angara. Take Poc with you.”

“Sounds good,” Sara nodded; Peebee stared back at her with a huge grin on her face.

“Who’s taking the Nomad?” Liam asked, eagerly bouncing on his heels.

“Sara, Peebee and Jaal are,” Scott replied stiffly, and Liam stopped bouncing, “The rest of you are on shore leave. Any questions?”

No-one said anything, “dismissed,” Scott called out, signalling for Drack and Vetra to follow him. Sara looked around, unsure of what she was supposed to do. A hand clapped onto her shoulder and Gil smiled at her.

“I got you,” Gil said, “I’ll ready the Nomad – you go ready your guns with Peebee and Jaal.” Sara nodded, leaving Gil to prepare the vehicle while she grabbed her carnifex pistol and widow, strapping it to her back.

“You’re a sniper?” Peebee asked, and Jaal looked up in interest as he folded up his huge kett sniper rifle.

“Sure am,” Sara replied, finalising the settings on her omni tool to turn into a blade when readied, and nodded in approval.

Sara stepped into the sudden heat and dryness that no space station or fake planet could re-create. She breathed in the dry air, and kicked the red dust under her feet as Peebee and Jaal followed her.

“Welcome to Eos!” Liam cried happily as he came up next to her, holding a football with a cheeky grin on his face, “what do you think?”

“Looks like shit,” Sara replied honestly taking in the capital city Prodromos and its inhabitants.

Liam nudged her jokingly, “shhh don’t let the locals hear that!”

“It’s honestly a compliment; being on a real planet for the first time is the most refreshing experience,” Sara explained, “the red dust and tall rock formations reminds me of Mars. Believe me, this is great.”

“Huh,” Liam responded, “well, see ya!” he darted off toward some waiting people who he greeted. Sara watched with interest before stepping out of the way as the Nomad was removed from the Tempest.

“Have fun, don’t destroy it…blah blah,” Gil winked at her, and she pulled open the door and got inside.

“Can you drive a Nomad?” Jaal asked sceptically while Peebee climbed into the back and strapped herself in.

“I did on Mars,” Sara shrugged as she put it into gear, “well, that was a Mako but same difference.” The vehicle jolted forward when she tapped on the accelerator and Jaal’s head hit the dash, “okay…maybe not quite the same.”

The drive was relatively quick albeit jerky, and SAM kept them on the right path so that they didn’t get lost, which with Sara at the helm was very likely. Eventually after a stretch of desert a huge metal structure was very evident.

“Wow…” Sara remarked, suddenly feeling her heart rate increase as she eyed the vault, “we’re actually going in there?”

“Yup!” Peebee replied excitedly, climbing over Sara to get out of the Nomad. Sara was a little more hesitant, but followed her out and pulled the carnifex out to hold it close in case of any nearby threats.

But the closer that Sara got to the vault, the more her heart rate began to climb until it was noticeably throbbing in her chest. She tried to swallow a lump in her throat as they drew ever nearer, and Sara fell out of step with her crewmates.

“I….can’t,” Sara said suddenly, coming to a grinding halt well behind Peebee and Jaal.

“Hm?” Peebee asked as the both of them turned.

Sara felt her feet take her another step back, “I can’t go in there,” her headache started again and her head was pounding.

Jaal approached and put a gentle hand on her shoulder, “I don’t understand…the remnant are gone.”

“It’s not that,” Peebee shook her head at Jaal as she stood on Sara’s other side – the serious expression on her face made Sara realise she knew what was happening; “maybe we should head back?”

“No,” Sara snapped a little too aggressively, “I can do this,” she put one foot in front of the other, pushing her trembling body toward the vault. Her toes touched the metal surface and her heart felt like it was going to burst from her chest.

She fell to her knees, her legs unable to support her weight. Her breaths caught in her chest and before she knew it she was sobbing into her gloved hands. The pain ripping through her body was unbearable; her head felt like it was going to explode.

“Sara?” Jaal asked, he knelt beside her and had a gentle arm around her shoulder. Sara could barely think about what was happening except that there was no way she was going into that vault. Flashes of pain ripped through her head, and along her nerves through her entire body.

“We’re gonna go back now,” Peebee said, her tone pure seriousness as she looked around unsure of what the hell to do.

“I’ll go get the Nomad,” Jaal said but Peebee shook her head, instead taking off back toward where the vehicle was parked. Jaal didn’t move; he kept his arm curled around her shoulders. Sara could barely contain her emotion – the tears were pouring thick and fast down her face and her muscles were shaking like a leaf.

The vehicle screeched to a halt beside them, and Peebee hopped out. Before Sara could even try to move, Jaal scooped her up in his arms and carried her into the Nomad. By this point, Sara’s spitting head pain and panic overtook her embarrassment. She was not going to live this down.

xXx

“What the hell happened?”

Scott marched toward them as they sat just outside the Tempest. Sara wasn’t shaking anymore but her heart was still throbbing in her chest, although it was at least going at a normal rate.

Sara opened her mouth to respond, but couldn’t make the words come out. She could barely remember what had happened.

“Sara just…” Peebee trailed off, unable to think of an explanation for what happened.

“Sara had a panic attack,” Lexi said as she descended from the Tempest, “according to SAM as Sara approached the vault she fell and was unable to proceed.”   

“You’re kidding me?” Scott rubbed his face in his hands, “were there any enemies? I know you don’t have the most combat experience…”

“No enemies,” Sara spoke over her brother, “my combat experience is fine.”

“Then why?” Scott retorted.

“If I fucking knew, I’d tell you wouldn’t I?” Sara leapt to her feet, unable to contain the sudden rage fuelling inside her.

“Scott…” Lexi began but Scott cut across her.

“I send you on the easiest mission and you can’t even get inside the fucking vault?”

Sara’s vision went red, she opened and closed her mouth a few times before turning on her heel and storming off, unsure of where she was headed but all she knew was that she wanted to get away from Scott and everyone’s judgemental eyes.

“Let her go,” she heard Scott’s voice say behind her, but persistent footsteps followed.

“Kid…” a voice called from behind her. Drack was a few paces behind her, a concerned look on his face – an expression she had never seen on a krogan before.  

“What?” Sara snapped, a little more harshly than she would’ve liked.

“You good with a gun?”

“Yeah?”

“Good. Come with me.”

Sara stopped suddenly and eyed him sceptically, but Drack continued to look at her with the same genuine expression. She couldn’t see the harm, so she followed the huge krogan. The two of them walked in silence for a little while, before coming to a clearing filled with a small stronghold of kett.

Real kett.

“You’re not panicking?”

Sara held her breath for a few seconds, almost trying to will a panic attack…but nothing happened.

“Good,” Drack continued.

Sara looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and then toward the kett. She pulled the widow off of her back and stretched it out, placing an eye on the scope. At once her breathing synced into a familiar rhythm that she felt when shooting with a sniper rifle.

She took aim, eyeing the closest kett’s head through the scope. She inhaled, and on the exhale squeezed the trigger. The loud crack sounded through the clearing, and the kett she had aimed at fell over dead.

Sara smiled as she reloaded her weapon.

“Get that pistol of yours!” Drack called out, roaring at the kett as he vaulted over cover and charged at them. Sara couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her lips as she followed, partly using him as cover as she swapped to her pistol.

Rushing forward, she activated her jet pack and taking aim at a kett she propelled herself, readying her omni blade, and with the momentum of the landing sliced into its throat, killing it instantly. She held up her pistol firing a shot into the head of another.

She rolled into cover and the crunch of Drack head-butting one pulled her attention for a split second before a bullet whizzed past her uncovered head. She ducked again and fiddled with the settings on her omni tool, setting them to flamethrower.

Sara cloaked, feeling the familiar tingle of being ‘invisible’ and pushed out of cover, holding up her omni-tool and using her flamethrower to incinerate the last two kett left in the little holding. They screamed and withered under the pain of the fire, and Sara smiled as she holstered her pistol.

“Feel better?” Drack asked as he looted the enemies.

“I do,” Sara replied, “how did you know they’d be here?”

“They’re always here,” Drack explained, “every time we’re on Eos I come here and sure enough there’s at least six kett standing in here. I don’t get it.”

“Me either but I know where to come when I need to calm down.”

Drack gave a belly laugh, “you sure do kid.”

They walked back through the city of Prodromos, Sara dreading going back to the ship and facing Scott.

“You’re a good shot, and you’re smart,” Drack started, and Sara paused to look up at the krogan, “everyone is facing their own demons – it just might take a while for Scott to realise that.”

“Thanks, Drack,” Sara said in a small voice, and he smiled at her.

They reached the Tempest and Drack made his way inside while Sara’s eyes were drawn to several of the crew carrying chairs, blankets and baskets away from the ship and walking to what looked like a cliff overlooking the town.

Cora emerged from the ship holding three chairs of her own, the blue around her hands indicating biotics were aiding her.

“What’s going on?” Sara asked, walking next to Cora and taking a chair from her grasp.

“Campfire night,” Cora replied, “it’s just a night where we slow down and spend time with each other.”

“Slow down? You mean drink and do dumb shit,” Liam added coming up on Sara’s other side.

Sara perked up, “does Scott normally join you?”

“He does,” Cora replied, raising an eyebrow at Sara who quickly looked away. They reached the clifftop and Suvi, Gil and Kallo were already setting chairs up while Scott was trying to light a fire with Vetra shadowing over him.

The day began to turn into night – the sun setting on the horizon was a sight to behold and Sara couldn’t help stare at it as she sat around the campfire with the Tempest crew. Drack had prepared stereotypical campfire food from a number of species and everyone feasted. She breathed it all in, everyone was talking, laughing, eating and drinking together.

After the food the crew began to sprawl out. Somehow, Scott had ended up in the same chair as Vetra and was smooshed in beside her. He looked squished but the happiest she had seen him in a while.

Jaal moved his chair closer to Sara, “are you feeling okay?”

Sara nodded, wanting to put the memories of today behind her, “I’m fine.”

Jaal took the hint and didn’t reply, instead placing a hand over Sara’s and staring at the fire. Sara couldn’t help the small smile that crossed her face at Jaal’s touch.  

“We should play some party games!” Liam spoke up suddenly.

“Got anything in mind?” Suvi asked.

Sara looked around before sitting up, she didn’t know the crew very well and this was her first chance to get to know them properly.

“How about ‘Never Have I Ever?’” Sara asked the group at large. The human crewmates were nodding in agreement while the alien members were looking around in confusion.

“I don’t know what this is, but I’m down,” Peebee said.

“It’s a drinking game. Someone will say ‘never have I ever’ followed by something they’ve never done. Whoever has done that thing takes a drink,” Sara explained.

“I knew this would be fun!” Peebee almost growled in excitement.

“You should start Sara!” Gil said.

“Oh shit, okay,” Sara replied, “hmm…never have I ever…shaved my head.”

“Seriously?” Kallo piped up while Scott, Liam and Cora took a drink. The alien crew rolled their eyes.

“You haven’t shaved your head Gil?” Cora asked.

Gil scoffed, “and get rid of this?” he asked pointing to his head, “Who do you think I am?”

“Your turn Cora!” Liam cried.

The game continued around the circle with various people taking drinks. Peebee was clearly winning, taking a drink every time someone had said something and by the time it got to Kallo she was swaying slightly. Her sips had been significantly larger than most.  

“Alrightly, never have I ever tried to sleep with Jien Garson,” Kallo smiled across the campfire at Suvi who took a drink, along with Peebee.

“Peebee, seriously?” Vetra asked.

“Hey it’s not my fault I’m adventurous.”

“I hate you Kallo,” Suvi muttered.

“You tried to sleep with Jien Garson?” Cora asked incredulously.

“’Tried’ is a word,” Suvi explained, “I attempted to while very drunk and it didn’t go down well. Tried to invent some excuse to cover my tracks, I think she saw right through it.”

“I’ve come to the conclusion from this game that humans are very fun when intoxicated,” Jaal said.

“Mate, we’re fun _all_ the time!” Liam said, “It’s your turn anyway!”

“Never have I ever been to the Milky Way,” Jaal said with a smug expression on his face.

“You’re an asshole Jaal,” Sara laughed as she took a swig of her drink.

“Bellend!” Liam laughed. The rest of the crew laughed and the silliness yet legitness of Jaal’s answer.

“Shit, I don’t know if I have one…” Sara hiccoughed. Aside from Peebee, Sara had taken the most drinks and her headache had returned – at least this time it wasn’t from crippling anxiety, “how about…” she looked over at Scott who had had the least drinks of anyone, “never have I ever kissed a turian.”

Scott rolled his eyes, “dammit Sara,” he said and took a drink; along with Vetra, Peebee, Lexi and Suvi.

“You Lexi?”

“She didn’t specify where and I have kissed my father on the cheek.”

“KNEW IT!” Sara cried, “Knew you had a turian dad!”

“I can one-up this,” Cora answered, “Never have I ever kissed a batarian!”

Sara looked around guiltily before taking a swig, with Peebee joining her enthusiastically.

“Okay,” Scott piped up, “Peebee I totally understand – but you Sara? What?!”

Sara shrugged, “I was eighteen and very, very drunk.”

“Eighteen!? You were with Goya then!”

“Who’s Goya?” Vetra asked.

“She was my asari partner in the Milky Way,” Sara answered, “a few friends and I went to Omega on our shore leave – it was not my idea, I wanted to go to the Citadel – I got stupidly drunk and this batarian was there and I don’t know what happened or how but the next thing I knew I was making out with him on the dancefloor.”

The crew roared with laughter, “same story here,” Peebee said.

“I never told Goya,” Sara continued, “technically we were on a break but that’s a long story. I didn’t actually know if I did it or dreamt it up until I saw the shallow cuts on my lips.”

“He hurt you?” Jaal sounded horrified.

“No, no,” Sara replied, squeezing Jaal’s hand to give him some reassurance, “batarian teeth are very sharp, so the cuts weren’t intentional. I think I can even remember him apologizing.”

“How have we never played this game before?” Peebee asked.

Sara smiled, sinking into her chair just a little and resting her head on Jaal’s shoulder. Night had well and truly fallen and Sara felt at peace staring at the stars that were very unfamiliar to her.

“Enjoying yourself?” Jaal whispered.

“I am, yes,” Sara replied quietly. Jaal chuckled under his breath and Sara closed her eyes, enjoying the peace.

_CRACK_

The Tempest crew leapt to their feet, scrambling for weapons and cover as the gunshot sounded. Sara pulled her carnifex out and sought shelter behind a rock. She cursed herself for not having her helmet or her chest and arm amour, she couldn’t activate night-vision and had no protection for the top half of her body.  

The shots from the distance kicked up dirt on the ground. Gil, Kallo and Suvi ducked for cover behind everyone else as they had no combat experience. Drack charged forward into the darkness, his roars echoing around the landscape. Vetra was shooting wildly, her visor providing her with the necessary night-vision. Scott, Peebee and Cora rushed forward, biotics flaring with Lexi a little behind them.  

“Enemies cleared,” SAM’s voice called out a little while later and Sara pulled out of cover, along with everyone else. Half of the crew had not been armed and some like Sara had been unable to see anything.

“What the fuck was that?” Liam asked as everyone made their way to where the shots had come from.

“Kett?” Gil asked.

“Those weren’t kett weapons,” Jaal grunted, “and they didn’t sound like angaran weapons either.”

“Or remnant,” Peebee added.

The crew approached the bodies, and Sara bent forward to examine one. From the darkness it was hard to distinguish but she recognised familiar shapes – the bent legs, the three fingered hand and the bio-suit.

“This is a quarian.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy. Shit. This chapter took me weeks to get right. I am so sorry about the delay everyone, but I honestly was just struggling to get the flow right. I've probably re-written about 5-6 times with a further 5 smaller re-writes of different sections and I'm finally happy with it. 
> 
> I sat with a friend of mine, and I bounced ideas off of her so now I think I have a clear direction of where I'm going with this story at this point which is why this chapter had a massive change in direction. This one, and the next one coming were originally in the opposite order. 
> 
> The part I'm least happy with is Sara's panic attack as I still don't think I've got it quite right. Sara is the kind of person who enters a weird paralysis when she has an anxiety attack (like I do), so that's why Jaal carries her into the Nomad. 
> 
> I also don't have my game at the moment so there are small things that I can't go in and check. I hope everyone enjoys and strap yourselves in - it's gonna be a wild ride!


	7. Guests

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara is disappointed about her disastrous first mission on Eos, but Jaal cheers her up by taking her to his favourite place on the Nexus

“This is no quarian,” Scott declared as he used his omni-tool like a torch and illuminated the body in front of them, “this is a kett.”

“Is it?” Liam asked.

Sara looked closer; at closer inspection it wasn’t exactly a quarian – but it wasn’t exactly a kett either. What Sara thought was a quarian’s suit was actually bony armour configured into what looked like a tangle of wires. If anything, it looked over-armoured to be a quarian but the backward legs and three fingered hands along with the humanoid figure were dead giveaways. The quarian-kett had dark eyes and was very pale compared to an angara-kett.

“There’s more than just quarians here,” Vetra called out as she examined another body. Sara rushed over to see Vetra staring at a pair of what looked like drell spliced with kett. She winced internally; the idea that the kett were mutating such a rare species was nauseating.

They had the same facial structure, but it was covered in the same bony structure of all kett. The five fingers on their hands had the fused middle fingers like drell have, but they were much thinner compared to angara-kett, and were covered in a fine sheen like they had just come out of a shower.

“But those were not kett weapons!” Jaal argued.

“Because they’re not,” Vetra replied. She pulled the gun out of the kett-quarian’s grasp and held it into the light being illuminated from flashlights. Jaal snatched the weapon from her grasp and examined it carefully.

“It looks like a kett weapon?” Peebee questioned.

“It’s…strange. I will need to study this,” Jaal replied, holding the gun firmly in his grasp.

 “There’s more drell than quarians here,” Scott announced, looking over the bodies.  

“That’s horrifying – it’s not like there’s a lot of drell in the first place,” Sara trailed off.

“Drell would be more advantageous to the kett compared to quarians,” Lexi explained, “I can’t think of a reason why they’d use quarians in the first place.”

“Engineers?” Gil asked, “I’d kill to have a quarian as my co-worker, although they might end up replacing me.”

“Perhaps,” Lexi bemused, “but why bring them into combat?”

Sara shook her head because she didn’t have answer.

“How?” Cora muttered, bending down and placing a hand on the deceased quarian-kett, “how did this happen? No one knows where the quarian ark is…”

“Clearly the kett do,” Sara replied, a lump rising in her throat.

“Maybe this isn’t a quarian?” Liam asked hopefully, but everyone shook their head.

“There’s no mistaking either of these species,” Scott grimaced.

“But how did they find out?” Vetra asked; a slight edge of anxiety present in her voice.

“Maybe they just stumbled across it in darkspace?” Peebee suggested, but no one answered. Like Sara they were probably too horrified with what was going on. Sara shuddered to think the torture everyone on the quarian ark was being subjected to.   

“We need to return to the Nexus as soon as possible,” Scott ordered after a period of silence, “grab some of these bodies, let’s take them with us.”

“I would advise not to touch the drell-kett hybrids without protection,” SAM explained, “They are coated in a thin layer of drell venom that the kett have exemplified to cause severe hallucinogenic effects in every known species, including angara.”

“Well, shit,” Peebee scratched her head. Cora stepped forward, and using her biotics picked the larger of the two drell-kett hybrids and hovered it slightly in front of her. Drack picked up the quarian-kett none too gently and threw it over his shoulders.

Prodromos was quiet as they made their way down the hill, Sara taking one final look over the planet before stepping into the Tempest. She shook out her nerves before retreating into the crew quarters to strip out of her armour and into her blasto tank top and trackpants. She felt twitchy, and her previous drunken stupor had been replaced by a pressing anxiety.

She didn’t know who to turn to. Her first choice would’ve been her brother, but for the first time in a long time she didn’t feel like talking to him. She hadn’t properly spoken to him since their argument, and Sara did not feel like delving into that again. Her next choice would be Jaal, but since this was a reality the angara faced daily she didn’t feel venting all of her problems would help, she felt it would make Jaal’s pain worse.

As if summoned, Suvi Anwar entered the crew quarters and started slightly when she saw Sara pacing up and down the small space with no clear purpose.

“Sara…” Suvi’s eyes were following Sara, “yeh okay?”

“Just a little anxious…” Sara replied, stopping mid-way through her pace to stare at Suvi. The woman looked concerned, and placed the datapads she had been holding on a nearby table.  

“Would yeh like a cuppa?” Suvi asked. Sara shrugged, following Suvi into the gallery. She thumped down into her usual seat at the table and watched Suvi put the kettle on while fetching mugs and tea leaves.

“Is it always like this?” Sara asked bitterly, folding her arms onto the table and resting her head on them.

“Like?” Suvi repeated.

“This!” Sara said with more venom in her voice than she had intended, she toned it back as she continued, “the constant horror. I knew this wasn’t going to be a cakewalk, but…I don’t know. This is _hard_.”

“Not always,” Suvi replied, pouring out two cups of tea and placing one in front of Sara, “there are good moments too.”

“So far this has just gone from bad to worse,” Sara sighed, taking a sip of her tea and trying not to flinch as she remembered that she hated tea. She smiled at what she hoped was gratefully at Suvi.

“Are yeh feeling better after what happened this afternoon?” Suvi asked gently, also taking a sip of her tea.

“News travels fast,” Sara scoffed as she took another sip of tea and resisted the urge to gag.

“Sorry,” Suvi replied, “I was just worried about yeh. Yeh’ve been through a lot.”

Sara stared at Suvi and instantly felt remorse for how she was behaving. Her problems were not Suvi’s fault, and Sara knew she shouldn’t be taking her suppressed anger out on Suvi, especially when she was trying to help.

“Better, but still embarrassed,” Sara replied, swirling the tea in her cup.

“It happens to everyone,” Suvi replied.

“I just…” Sara struggled to find the words, “I don’t know what happened.”

“Do you not remember what happened?”

“Oh I remember,” Sara stated before pressing on, “it’s more…the one thing I wanted to do before I left for Andromeda was explore ancient cultures I knew _nothing_ about. When I woke up and heard about the vaults, all I wanted to do was explore them but for some reason I panicked on Eos.”

Sara felt tears come to her eyes and she blinked, trying to push them away as she continued, “it’s not what I envisioned when I closed my eyes in my stasis pod.”

“I don’t think any of us were expecting this,” Suvi replied, and placed her hand on Sara’s arm.

“Scott was angry,” Sara said quietly.

“Have yeh spoken to him?”

“No, not after the fight we had,” Sara stared at the door of the gallery but wasn’t really seeing it. They were silent for a few beats.

“Do you mind if I go to bed?” Sara asked abruptly.

“Not at all,” Suvi replied, gathering Sara’s almost untouched mug, “I hope you feel better soon.” Sara watched as the woman’s smile fell off of her face.

She placed a hand on Suvi’s shoulder, and her turquoise eyes met Sara’s, “Thank you for listening.”

Suvi merely gave a melancholy smile before washing the mugs, and Sara left without a backward glance. She climbed into bed, making sure not to wake Cora and Gil, the latter was actually sleeping for once.

She stared at the low ceiling of her bunk and wished for sleep.

xXx

_Sara was trapped in the torture chair once more. Physical barriers weren’t necessary when her very mind was being controlled to the point where escape was not a feasible option. She tried to make out her surroundings, but only recognised the grey metal of a vault._

_“HELP!” Sara cried out, willing someone to come to her aid. Where was the Tempest crew?_

_“Resistance is pointless,” The Archon stepped out of the shadows, looming over her as she quivered under his frightening gaze._

_“No…you’re dead.”_

_He smiled; his pointed teeth evident as he lowered his head so he and Sara were practically nose to nose._

_“Perfection never dies.”_

_The Archon transformed, in his place stood another kett. Sara met its eyes, and her own were staring back at her._

_She screamed_.

“Sara? SARA!”

Her name was being used, but by whom she had no idea – the babble of voices sounded very far away. Slowly, her body began to come under her control once more. She was on a hard surface. It wasn’t the chair at least, but it still hurt.  

Her eyelids opened to reveal that she was lying on the floor of the Tempest and she was surrounded by people. The voices began to come into focus, “are you okay?”

“What happened?” Sara asked groggily, trying to sit up.

Cora was bent over her, eyes scanning for injury and a face full of concern. Gil and Suvi loomed in the background watching with identical worried expressions.

 “You screamed,” Cora answered, “and fell out of bed.”

“It took a good few minutes to wake you up,” Gil added as Lexi bustled into the room, followed by a concerned looking Kallo. Sara groaned, _just what I need_ she thought to herself, _more people._

“I just had a nightmare,” Sara replied quietly, rubbing at her aching head. The ever present hum of her normal headache was there along with a throbbing superficial pain on the left side of her head – probably where it had hit the cold floor. She looked down, and noticed she was not supporting her weight using her left arm.

Lexi pushed past Cora and opened her omni-tool, running the scanning program over Sara before grimacing, “can you come with me?”

“Why?” Sara groaned, wanting more than anything to just go back to bed.

“Because you have a fracture in your arm and I need to treat it,” Lexi replied in a matter of fact tone. Sara’s next groan was a mixture of annoyance and pain as she got to her feet. Great, of course she had to be the one to _fracture her arm_ in her sleep.

Sara followed Lexi into the med-bay and took a seat on the one of the cots as Lexi began making notes on a datapad.

“This is a fucking joke,” Sara muttered.

“What do you mean?”

“Just wait until Scott finds out about this. He lost his shit when I had a panic attack in the field, he’s going to pop a blood vessel when he finds out I broke my arm in my sleep.”

Lexi’s face twisted into what Sara thought was a smile but it looked like she was in pain instead, “they said you screamed in your sleep…do you remember why?”

“I had a nightmare,” Sara rubbed the back of her neck with her good hand.

“About?”

“I don’t know…it’s not important anyway. It’s just a nightmare.”

Lexi raised an eye ridge and folded her arms while Sara rolled her eyes and refused to answer further.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I said I forgot, would you?”

“No,” Lexi confirmed, “I wouldn’t.”

“Dammit,” Sara muttered, she didn’t feel like talking about something she enjoyed, much less the nightmares that plagued her every night, “you’re not going to relent, are you?”

“Probably not,” Lexi said as she went through the procedure of trying to repair Sara’s arm.

Sara sighed, “It’s always the same thing.” Lexi didn’t speak so Sara continued, “it’s always me…being tortured by the Archon…” Sara winced at the words, she hated saying that aloud, “and then someone I love is turned into a kett.”

“Ah,” Lexi said.

“It’s been Scott most of the time,” Sara continued to explain, “but in that last dream I don’t know whether it was me or Scott.”

“Have these happened since Meridian?”

“Since I left? They were happening before I left.”

“They weren’t mentioned in your psychological evaluation,” Lexi frowned slightly as she went through a datapad. Sara could see her own face and a huge document attached with notes on it.

“I’ve never thought to bring it up,” Sara rubbed the back of her neck with her good hand again, her mind drifting.

“I think we need to start your cognitive therapy sooner rather than later, I’m booking you in for a session when we reach the Nexus.”

Sara pouted, “fine.”

“This is not a game Sara; I don’t want to have to send you back to Meridian.”

Sara turned away from Lexi, and her eyes fell onto the cots behind her where she screamed in fright at the sight of the dead bodies of the two kett hybrids they had taken from Eos.

“Are you alright?” Lexi put a steady hand on Sara’s shoulder as her legs threatened to give way and her heart felt ready to evacuate her chest.

“Just…uh…wasn’t expecting our…guests…to be right here,” Sara felt her heart rate steadying as she took in the dead bodies. The drell hybrid was oozing the poison as well as a sickly looking blood, but Sara wasn’t sure which was which.

“Sorry about that, I should’ve warned you,” Lexi replied.

“How did I not notice this?” Sara asked herself as she sat back down and Lexi resumed examining her. After several minutes, Lexi stood back up, “okay, you’re all patched up – just keep your arm in a sling for about a week ship time,” Lexi explained, and Sara nodded and made to leave but the door open to reveal a very dishevelled Scott.

“SAM woke me; he said something was wrong with Sara?” Scott asked, looking between the asari and his sister, his eyes narrowing in on Sara’s arm in a sling.

“I uh…” Sara looked away, unable to meet Scott’s eyes. She still had not spoken to Scott properly since the fight, and she did not want to start now.

“Sara fell out of bed and fractured her arm,” Lexi explained, “she’s fine, I’ve patched her up and she should be fine in a few days.”

“Right,” Scott put a hand on his hip and ran his fingers through his hair, and from the looks of things Scott wasn’t about to discuss the fight or anything else either. He simply nodded at the both of them and departed, the doors snapping shut behind him.

Sara half-smiled at Lexi before leaving as well, returning to the crew quarters to find Cora standing idly.

Sara raised an eyebrow, “uh…?”

“I’ve swapped bunks with you,” Cora said and climbed into the top bunk, “just as a precaution.”

“Right,” Sara said stiffly, annoyed that she had no say in the matter, but climbed into the lower bunk which was now covered with her sheets and snuggling in gratefully. It looked as though someone had left one of the stuffed toys on the bed too, and Sara grabbed it – wanting something to hold.

Sleep could not come fast enough.

xXx

“Sara, it is now time to wake up.”

The world was blurry and it took Sara’s eyes several minutes to adjust. For a wild second she thought the night before had been a dream, but as she tried to stretch out her arm, it caught against the sling and she sighed.

Great, so last night had happened.

“I don’t wanna wake up SAM,” Sara rolled over in bed and slammed her eyes shut, hoping that sleep would reclaim her.

“We have reached the Nexus,” SAM simply stated, which caused Sara to smack her head against the bunk.

“Shit,” she mumbled, grasping her head with her good arm before scrambling out of bed. Everyone else had starting working, and from the looks of things the ship was well and truly in the day cycle. Sara bustled around the room looking for clothing and quickly through her usual Initiative attire on before frowning in the mirror at her hair.

“I can’t tie my hair up,” Sara complained, before unslinging her arm and performing the usual motions to put her hair in a ponytail, sending a stinging sensation through her arm. She squinted against the pain, secured her locks and made her way into the kitchen for her usual coffee.

The ship was quiet, and Sara was enjoying the relative peace as she sipped her coffee in the empty space, “SAM, where is everyone?”

“The majority of the crew are on the Nexus, while the Pathfinder is still on the ship greeting Nexus crew.”

“Oh shit that’s right,” Sara tossed the rest of her coffee into the sink, “our guests!”

Making sure her pants and shoes were on, Sara made her way to the bridge but frowned when Scott was nowhere to be seen – then proceeded to check what felt like every room before spotting him in the cargo bay.

Several individuals of various races had already boarded, and Sara shuffled awkwardly past them giving what she thought was a smile before reaching her brother.

“Scott!” Sara called out, and Scott jumped as though she had shocked him. His eyes widened as Sara approached.

“Sara,” Scott replied awkwardly, his eyes darting to the open door where the last of the people had entered, “how’s your arm?”

“It’s fine,” Sara said, “…am I joining you on the valuation of those kett we found?”

“Ah – no. Not today.”

“Why?” Sara demanded, placing her good hand on her hip and glaring at Scott suspiciously.

“Tann’s orders,” Scott stated, but Sara knew he was lying through his teeth.

“What? Seriously?”

Scott sighed and rubbed his face with his hands, “yes. Leave now, please,” he added the pleasantry to seem polite.

He darted off after the group of people who had come aboard the Tempest before Sara could even form a response, leaving her standing stupidly in the cargo bay with no goal for her day.

“Fucking-,” she muttered under her breath before vacating the Tempest. She turned to look at the Tempest as she walked out and bumped into something very solid.

She rubbed at her aching head and looked up to see a very bewildered Jaal staring at her.

“Jaal!”

“Sara! Are you al- _did I do that_?” Jaal’s voice went up an octave as he glanced at her arm.

“No, no,” Sara reassured him, “I fell out of bed last night, it’s all fine. Trust me, you did not cause this.”

“You ‘fell out of bed’? Is that an idiom?”

She couldn’t contain her laughter, “no, I literally fell out of bed.”

“Oh…” Jaal seemed confused, but his laughter rumbled in his chest.  

“Anyway, where are you off to?”

“The cultural centre…would you like to-?”

“Come? Yes.”

Jaal’s face lit up, “great!”

“Great!” Sara repeated excitedly; the two of them walking along the platform together and Sara marvelling in the beauty of the station.

“You look at the Nexus like it’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen,” Jaal commented.

“Hm? Oh, well, it reminds me of home.”

“Home?”

“I was born and grew up on the Citadel, which was a massive space station back in the Milky Way – much bigger than this. But, it still reminds me of home.”

Aliens of various species, including humans, were staring at her. Whether it was the arm in the sling, or the fact she was Scott’s sister she didn’t know. Sara looked down at her arm to see that her good arm had secured itself around Jaal’s.

_Well, that could explain the staring_ Sara thought to herself.

She looked at their linked arms, but shrugged it off. Angara were affectionate, she was stressed and needing the companionship – it would all be fine.

That’s what she kept thinking anyway.

They entered the cultural centre, and Sara was greeted to a long room that sloped upward with several VI’s of various Milky Way races. A few angara stared at her and Jaal curiously, but Sara shrugged it off again.  

“Oh god, I’m already embarrassed,” Sara laughed, “where should we start?”

“The top and work our way down?” Jaal suggested. Sara nodded in agreement and moved to the top of the room, starting at the asari VI. They worked their way through each species and Sara couldn’t decide what was worse. Whether it be flushing with embarrassment at the cringe-worthy human or laughing hysterically at the rest of them.

“I wonder how many credits they paid this krogan,” Sara chuckled, “I’ve never heard something so terrible in my life.” She noted a few nasty looks from angara as she spoke, and looked away awkwardly, “let’s check out what the pathfinder has to say.”

As they approached Sara noticed the visual image looked eerily familiar to her; and when they came face to face she knew it instantly.

It was Alec Ryder.  

“Holy shit,” Sara whispered, reaching out to touch the VI of her father but instead her fingers fell through the projection. She grimaced slightly.

“Dad…” Sara said to the VI, as if she were willing it to respond. It did nothing; the orange outline of Alec continued to stare through her vacantly, sending chills down her spine. It was so similar to him it was scary, the projection stood at Alec’s actual height – which was the same as Scott’s. It felt like he was really here.  

“Why did they choose you?” Sara wondered aloud.

“We alternate between the original pathfinders daily,” the asari who managed the place replied as she walked by them.

Sara felt Jaal’s steady arm wrap around her waist, and she rested her head gently against his shoulder, “I’ll show you something,” Jaal said to her and stood tall facing the VI, “tell me about you.”

The VI reset itself as it entered a pre-recorded speech, “My name is Alec Ryder, and I am the first human pathfinder. I was born in the Sierra Nevada region of North America, a country on Earth – humanity’s home world. In the Milky Way I was an N7, an elite operative within humanity’s military. I joined the Andromeda Initiative with my two adult children: Scott and Sara Ryder. In time, I am certain that like me they will achieve many great things in the Andromeda galaxy.”

“Wow…” Sara said, her feelings swirling into confusion. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She wanted to laugh at the thought of Alec having to say the lines and cringing with every word, but she wanted to cry because these lines were some of the last material he had spoken about.  

It hit her in the chest that she hadn’t gotten to see or speak to her father in Andromeda. The only living memories she had were in the Milky Way. But, seeing the hologram made her feel like she had a memory of him in Andromeda.

“Thank you Jaal,” Sara whispered as she felt her good arm come up and wrap around Jaal’s waist.

“You’re welcome,” Jaal hummed, they were silent as they made their way out of the Cultural Centre and stood outside, gazing at the Tempest.

“Do you reckon we should head back?” Jaal asked.

“Naah,” Sara replied and Jaal laughed, his deep voice vibrating in his chest and his poncho flowing effortlessly with the motion.  

“What is this thing called?” Sara asked, letting go of Jaal’s waist and grabbing the material in her fingertips. 

“It is a rofjinn,” Jaal explained.

Sara stared at him and raised an eyebrow quizzically, Jaal pressed on, “a garment angara wear.”

“No, really?” Sara asked sarcastically, and Jaal sniggered in response, slapping her shoulder lightly.

“They’re often considered special or important, I can make you one if you’d like?”

Sara inhaled sharply, “really? I’d love that!”

Jaal smiled, “then I will, although I did promise Liam one as well.”

Sara chuckled, “you better give him one first, he might get angry if you don’t.”

They chuckled, and stared at the ship together, “also…that weapon you took from the quarian, did you find out anything useful?”

Jaal hummed, “It was…bizarre. It wasn’t a normal kett weapon; it has the shape and overall feel of one, it handles like one but the bullets were modified to fire like Milkee Whey weapons.”

“That’s…weird,” Sara said, her eyebrows furrowing in concentration.

“I agree, and so did the pathfinder – he took the gun after I told him to show the Nexus leadership.”

“Of course he did,” Sara rolled her eyes while staring back at the Tempest, zeroing in on a blue figure running from the ship, no not running – _skipping_.

“Is that…Lexi?” Jaal asked curiously.

“It can’t be,” Sara replied. Their questions were answered however when Peebee came skipping through the terminal and skidded to a halt beside them.

“Guess what Jaal? I have _great_ news for you!”

“Every time you say that it’s never great news,” Jaal pouted, “it’s usually awful news.”

“We’re going to _Kadara_!” Peebee said in a sing-song voice before skipping off, and Jaal groaned audibly.

“I hate Kadara,” Jaal grumbled, stomping toward the ship with Sara hurrying to catch up, and she caught his wrist to bring him to a stop.

“Hey – it can’t be that bad, right?”

Jaal’s homely eyes met hers, all good humour gone, “Just wait and see.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap guys, I am so so sorry! I don't even know how to defend myself. So, as you all know I work full time and I was studying as well. But, you'll be pleased to know that as of Thursday I will be a fully qualified veterinary technician - so no more university for me ever again! I still work full time, but now that I'm not studying it will be much easier to release chapters. 
> 
> This chapter has been easier to write than others, but I just hope that I'm staying reasonably consistent. Flow in long stories is my achilles heel. Also I absolutely feel the pull to edit earlier chapters, but if I did it would be small stuff and nothing major would change. 
> 
> The "guests" title name is also in reference to the two dead kett hybrids on board.


	8. Bets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott narrates us in this small chapter about kett and bets, and the twin's relationship continues to be put to the test.

**SCOTT**

Scott Ryder glanced over his shoulder at Sara’s retreating form, and sighed.

He wanted to include her in the top secret need-to-know pathfinder business, but he couldn’t seem to shake the idea that something was off about her, he just couldn’t pinpoint what it was. Drack had reported to him that her military finesse was up to scratch when they had taken out kett on Eos and Cora had added that her fitness program was well-followed with Sara fitting in routine fitness sessions and combat practice.

He moved Sara out of his mind as he made his way to the cargo bay where Lexi was waiting with several members of the Nexus team. The Nexus scientists – Adriana, Herik and Lucan he believed they were called – looked at him intently with a restless Harry Carlyle standing in the back with his arms folded. Tann, Addison, Kesh and Kandros were also present. Scott had to admit he was surprised to see the turian with them.  

‘Kandros is interested in potential battle strategies’ SAM answered on the private channel and Scott nodded.

“Pathfinder, can you explain, in detail, exactly what happened?” Addison asked while he noted the others were staring intently. Lexi eyed him from the back as she ran what looked like the umpteenth scans over the corpses.

“It was late on Eos, and the crew and I were having down-time,” Scott explained, and he didn’t miss the annoyed glare on Addison’s face. He knew she didn’t approve of the amount of shore leave Scott gave his crew, but he didn’t care, “we heard gunfire, these kett hybrids came out of the dark and did not speak, they simply attacked. My crew and I thought they were quarians at first.”

“How many?” Kesh asked curiously.

“Six,” Scott answered, “four of what we believe to be kett/drell hybrids and two of what we believe are kett/quarian hybrids. We only salvaged two, one of each.”

“Your report mentioned that the weapons were not kett in design?” Herik asked as he and Lucan examined them closely.

“Somewhat. My angaran crewmate informed me that while the weapons mimic kett design, they are like our weapons when they fire, and take our ammunition.”

“He’s right,” Lucan said as Kesh made her way over to help pull the weapon apart.  

“We’ll need to run some tests, and with your permission we will examine the reports that Dr T’Perro has written,” Harry said and Scott nodded at him, they needed this mystery solved, “it should only take a few hours pathfinder, we’ll need all the space you can give us.”

“Duly noted,” Scott replied, backing out of the med-bay. The advisors followed and Scott found himself standing in the hallway with no current plan.

“We will return when the scientists finish their work,” Tann said and Scott nodded, watching as they departed. He made his way to the cargo bay to make sure everything was in order when he noticed a pair of legs poking out from underneath the Nomad.

“Gil?”

“Right here,” came Gil’s familiar tones as he wheeled himself out from underneath the vehicle, “what can I do for you?”

“Have you been on the ship the entire time?”

“Came back a bit ago; just checking over the Nomad and making sure she’s fit for duty. Kosta’s on the other side helping with the tyres.”

“I thought I sent you guys out on shore leave?”

“We came back, you didn’t exactly bar us from the ship,” Liam explained. As per usual, he wasn’t wearing a shirt and had a smear of what looked like oil on his face and his chest, “anyways, we thought you’d be up for a game?”

“Poker?”

“Of course poker,” Gil said, “you free?”

Scott had emails to do and more reports to write, but he shrugged, “yeah sure.”

“Great!” Gil chirped, jumping up from the Nomad and wiping his hands on a cloth before Scott followed them into Liam’s room. He cringed when he took a seat on Liam’s couch, hating every second he spent on his disgusting seat. Liam handed he and Gil a beer, maybe the alcohol would take his mind off of the couch.

Liam dealed the first game; and it went terribly – even by Scott’s miserable standards.

“I fold!” Liam slammed his cards down on the table while Gil greedily flicked his gaze between Scott and the chips on the table.

“Come on Ryder…you know I’m gonna win this.”

Scott sighed, “Fine, I fold as well.”

“Come to papa!” Gil laughed as he grabbed all of the chips and greedily pulled them toward himself.

Scott rolled his eyes, “why do I agree to these games?”

“Admit it, you like losing all of your hard earned credits to me!” Gil said as he was counting out his chips.

“One of these days…” Liam warned, but Gil merely burst out laughing.

“How’s your sister finding everything?” Gil asked conversationally as Liam shuffled the cards to play another round.

Scott didn’t know how to answer that question – Sara had been unusually distant as of late, and they hadn’t spoken properly since their fight.

“I think she’s fine, I haven’t spoken to her very much,” Scott trailed off, not feeling like going into that particular conversation with Liam or Gil. Not that he didn’t like them, but he struggled with this sort of stuff with Vetra let alone anyone else.

“She’s a bit of a looker I will admit,” Liam commented idly as he looked at his cards. 

“Liam, seriously?” Gil questioned. 

“Don’t even go there Liam,” Scott said darkly, immediately coming to the defence.

“What?” Liam shrugged, his voice rising.

“I may be your ‘mate’, but Sara is my sister. Plus, she’s not into you anyway – she only likes women.”

“Has she said that?” Gil asked.

Scott opened his mouth to speak but closed it again, thinking about his response carefully, “not…directly. Every time I’ve asked she’s said she just picks a person for who they are, not what they are. But, she’s only ever shown interest in women.”

“Hm, okay,” Gil said, taking a sip of his beer.

“I’m already betting she’ll hook up with Peebee,” Scott commented idly, as he fiddled with a chip, “she had an asari partner in the Milky Way – no doubt it’ll happen here too.”

Liam roared with laughter, “Peebee? Yeah right! From what I’ve seen every morning Sara wakes up, gets her coffee and sits by Suvi’s side on the bridge. Unless she’s into salarians – she’s going to be dating Suvi. Suvi’s always flustered around her!” 

“Yeah but we’re not betting on Suvi, we’re betting on Sara,” Scott argued, “once you go blue you never go back. She’s with Peebee _all the time_ ; it’s going to be Peebee.”

“Are you willing to bet on it?” Liam asked, “Real money bet?”

Scott arched an eyebrow, “yeah, sure.  I bet 500 credits that Sara will be dating Peebee within the next three months.”

“500 on Suvi,” Liam replied, “Gil – do you want to add a bet?”

Scott turned to the engineer, knowing he wouldn’t be able to resist the idea of betting money. He sat in thought for a while before finally piping up “1000 on Jaal.”

 _“What?_ ” Scott and Liam asked together.

“Care to explain?” Liam asked.

“Nope,” Gil said.

“Jaal makes no sense at all! I mean, the big oaf seems to be friendly with her but there’s just _no way_ that they’ll be a couple,” Scott explained, “Jaal’s a soppy marshmallow with everyone except…”

“You,” Gil finished for him.

“Yeah, well,” Scott rubbed at the back of his neck, “he and I just don’t see eye to eye. But, I’m sure that they’re never going to date.”

“If you’re so sure this should be an easy bet,” Gil replied.

“Deal then?” Scott asked arching an eyebrow, and both Liam and Gil nodded shaking hands on it. Scott’s omnitool bleeped, and he looked to see that the scientists and medical professionals had finished their analysis.  

“I best be off gentlemen,” Scott stretched, his joints cracking and exited Liam’s room and moved toward the med-bay, wondering what the scientists had found with the kett.

As he crossed the cargo bay, he spotted Sara, Jaal and Peebee entering the ship. The three of them were laughing together, and Scott noted that Peebee was in the middle of them and had her arm wrapped around Sara’s waist, with Sara’s arm over Peebee’s shoulders.

Yup, he was going to be earning himself a few hundred credits for sure.

xXx

The stress that had mounted from the discoveries was enormous, pushing the bet well and truly out of his mind.

Scott ran his fingers through his hair in frustration as he sat looking through emails, wanting to instead slam his head on the desk. He had to deal with Tann and Addison who had insisted on coming to look for an hour pulling him away from his work. Now he had _another_ report to write and it was messing with his head.

‘Everyone is currently aboard the Tempest, Pathfinder,’ SAM reminded him.

 _Thank you SAM_ Scott thought, _inform Kallo that I want the Tempest off of the ground and heading toward Kadara within the hour._

‘Understood’

The door opened, startling Scott from his conversation with SAM to reveal one of his favourite people in the universe. Vetra stood easily, arms folded and her mandibles flicking out. 

“Hey,” Scott smiled at her. 

“Hey,” Vetra smiled back, “are you busy?”

“When am I not busy?” Scott asked jokingly, but continued with, “but, what did you have in mind?”

“Would you like to go out for dinner somewhere?” Vetra asked as she leant up against the wall and pulled the space hamster from his cage. The little rodent cooed in her hand and she stroked it affectionately, “I just…we haven’t been out in a while. Would you like to go, just the two of us?”

Scott sighed and stared out of his huge windows, kicking himself for playing a game of poker with Gil and Liam when he knew he had work to do. The Nexus looked bright and inviting, and Scott wanted nothing more than to break all of his datapads in half and run off with Vetra, even for just a few hours.

“I’d love to, but I can’t,” Scott replied, “I have reports to write about those kett and a debriefing with the crew…” he trailed off, watching the sparkle wither in Vetra’s eyes. He felt guilty, but kept his face like a mask.  

“We’ll find time for it,” Scott added, getting to his feet and pulling his girlfriend into his arms, despite the fact she dwarfed him in size.

“I know,” Vetra replied, her flanging effect sounding deeper than normal, a sign Scott knew to be disappointment or sadness, “just need to train Sara up.”

“Yeah,” Scott chuckled half-heartily even though he knew Vetra was joking.

“I’ll see you later,” Vetra pulled back from his embrace, and Scott struggled with the words he wanted to say, but she exited without a backward glance.

“Vetra, I…” Scott called after her, but she had gone. He stared at the door long after she had gone, knowing that she wasn’t happy but not feeling sure what he could do about it.

‘The last time you and Vetra went somewhere together was over 100 days ago’ SAM said.  

“Thanks, SAM,” Scott grumbled before returning to his work only to find that his inbox was empty. He hit the refresh button, but nothing happened.

“SAM…” Scott folded his arms and waited, but SAM did not relent, “seriously?”

“Pathfinder,” Kallo said over the comms, “I have been informed that the Tempest is grounded under SAM’s orders.”

“SAM…” Scott shouted, standing up and staring at the ceiling.

‘I am not letting you work until you and Vetra do something together; my readings suggest it would improve your mental health considerably.’

 “SAM…” Scott crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for SAM to open his inbox but nothing happened.

“Fine!” Scott relented and got to his feet, “you win SAM!” he stormed out of the room and through the ship, earning a few surprised looks from Gil and Suvi, to find himself in Vetra’s room where she was eating a box of Blast Oh’s.

“Are you okay?” Vetra asked, mouthful of Blast-Oh’s.

“Would you like to go for dinner?”

“Change of heart?”

Scott sighed, “SAM changed it for me.”

Vetra laughed, “SAM, I’m quite okay not going if Scott’s too busy.”

“I have calculated that Scott’s mental health will improve if he goes out to dinner with you,” SAM stated matter-of-factly.

“AI’s order then?” Vetra chuckled as she stood and walked with Scott to the cargo bay doors.

“I’ll just say that a rogue AI blocked my work so I could have a date with my girlfriend if anyone asks,” Scott hummed.

xXx

Scott stepped foot on the ship several hours later; belly full, mind cleared with an infinitely happier Vetra by his side. 

“That was lovely,” Vetra bemused, “thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Scott smiled, standing on his tip toes to peck Vetra on the cheek. She smiled as she made her way back to her room.

A wolf whistle echoed through the cargo bay, and Scott whipped round to see Peebee and Sara lounging idly on spare Nomad tyres, both looking very pleased with themselves.

Scott cocked an eyebrow, “which-?” he started, but they pointed at each and he sighed, “right.”

“Were you and Vetra on a date?” Sara asked playfully.

“Yes,” Scott replied.

“Details?” Peebee asked eagerly, sitting forward and resting her head on her hands.

“So the place we went had just opened and was super fancy, Vetra had this amazing looking dextro roast and I -.”

“Okay, okay,” Sara laughed, raising her arms in defeat, “we get it.”

“Hey! What if I wanted to hear about the extravagant detail of their food choices?” Peebee pouted.

“So, what are you two talking about then?” Scott asked.

“Nothing…” Sara said in a jokey-suspicious way, a small smirk on her face.

“We were talking about sex! So, Sara, when you _embraced eternity_ with Goya-,” Peebee began enthusiastically.

“Right! I’m going now!” Scott called over his shoulder and retreated to the safety of his quarters where he would not be able to hear the details of his sister’s sex life.

He sighed at his return to normality and flicked through his pile of datapads. ‘Just a reminder Pathfinder-,’ SAM said on the private channel and Scott rolled his eyes. The debrief he had to conduct plus all the files he had to read loomed over him like a bad smell, and he couldn’t seem to shake it.

He gathered up the datapads and even scribbled notes he had drawn and made his way to the meeting room but was stopped in the hall by Lexi, “Scott, may I speak to you for a moment?”

“Sure,” he followed Lexi into the medbay, dumping the datapads unceremoniously onto one of the empty cots, “what do I owe the pleasure?”

“It’s about Sara,” Lexi twisted her lip.

“Ah,” Scott replied, _why did everything have to be about Sara?_

“She and I had our first therapy session, and I want you to pull her from the ground team for Kadara.”

“Is there anything you’re particularly worried about?” Scott asked curiously.

“Not at the moment, but after Eos I think Sara needs time away from the battlefield. My session with her almost confirmed this. I can’t go into detail, obviously, but that is what I request.”

“She’s going to be incredibly angry if I pull her, are you sure this is necessary?”

“It is in my professional opinion that the short term anger she is going to feel will be better than the long term emotional trauma she is likely to suffer if in combat too early in her recovery.” 

Scott sighed, “If you’re asking me to, I will. Is there anything else?”

“Yes. You’re late for a health checkup,” Lexi grimaced, “after this meeting you’re about to hold I want you in here.”

“Fine,” Scott rolled his eyes good-naturedly and picked up the datapads, using his biotics to aid him, “thank you for letting me know.”

“Anytime,” Lexi replied, the medbay doors snapping shut behind Scott as he ventured back into the hallway. _SAM I want everyone gathered for the debriefing in the next few minutes._

‘Yes, pathfinder,’ SAM responded and sent out the ship wide message. Scott reached the table and dumped all of the datapads, attempting to arrange them into some sort of order before the meeting started.

One of Scott’s favourite things was to observe what order the crew arrived at meetings at. It was usually always the same, and the fact it had stayed the same for many months continued to amuse him. Cora, as usual, was first. She marched up the ramp with confidence and stood to attention opposite of Scott, giving a smile and curt nod as she did so.

Suvi and Kallo were always next, and Scott was sure they had a game going. Suvi arrived slightly before Kallo did, and both of them were flushed, Suvi even doubled over with her cheeks tinged pink. The rest of the crew followed: Gil, then Drack, Lexi after. Vetra was always somewhere in the middle. Old habits die hard, she and Scott had arranged for Vetra to arrive in the middle when they had started dating as to not arouse suspicion when they had not told the crew.

Jaal and Liam usually arrived at the same time and today was no different; with Peebee and Sara trailing at the back of the group which caused Scott to raise an eyebrow. He glanced over at Gil, who rolled his eyes back at him.

“Sorry for the lateness of this meeting; but I’m sure you’d all want to be updated as to what is going on with the kett. So, as for the guests which are now thankfully off of our ship they have been confirmed as a quarian kett hybrid and drell kett hybrid.”

The crew looked around at each other, no one was surprised. Suvi piped up, “they have the ark…”

“They do,” Scott nodded gravely, “while it’s not confirmed I think it is safe to assume that they do but the issue is we don’t know where the ark is. The communication we received has been jammed so we cannot track the ark’s location.”

“Is it in the cluster?” Cora asked.

“At this stage, we think so. But, no one is really sure,” Scott replied.

“Is there a chance that the kett have taken the ark to their home-world?” Liam asked the group, “There’s five unique species on that ark. Maybe with the defeat of the archon that Primus has grown suspicious and cautious.”

“If they are there’s no way we can follow them. The angara have tried to follow the kett to the home-world with no luck for nearly a century, there’s no way we’d have any luck. No, I think they’re in the cluster or nearby.”

“What about the weapons?” Jaal asked suddenly.

“I’ve given them the weapons to examine, but they are in agreement that the kett were trying to surprise and unsettle us,” Scott explained. The crew murmured in agreement, and Scott couldn’t help but notice that Sara had turned a pale shade of green.

“I know we’ve been dedicated into solving the mystery of the Jardaan, but I want all energy refocused into the ark. Jaal, are you okay with this?”

Jaal jumped at the mention of his name, “why wouldn’t I be? The survival of your companions means more than the origins of my species.”

Scott nodded slowly; he had truthfully not been expecting that answer. He picked up a datapad, “I want each of you to read the notes on these new enemies. Stick to these datapads, the notes are restricted files,” Scott handed the datapads around to everyone, who immediately opened them and began to read, “Kandros made these; they have combat tips and fighting strategies for biotics and tech alike.”

Scott continued, “we’ll be reaching Kadara in a few days as the scientists have found trace elements of soils from Kadara on the corpses, along with Eos.”

An audible groan was heard throughout the group and Scott grimaced, “I’ll be contacting Sloane regarding arrival, but I’ll fill you in with the plan once we arrive. Dismissed.”

Lexi’s words circled around his head, and Scott yelled at Sara’s ponytail, “Sara!” she turned abruptly, her body language changing as she turned, “can I speak with you?”

She nodded stiffly as she approached, and Peebee gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. Scott waited until the rest of the crew had dispersed before turning to Sara, “how are you?” he asked sympathetically.

Sara jolted as though Scott had shocked her, “I’m…okay? Arm is healing well.”

“That’s good.”

There was an awkward pause before Scott continued, “Sara, I’m pulling you from the ground team on Kadara.”

Sara raised an eyebrow, “Lexi says my arm will be fine, and I will ready for active duty once we reach Kadara,” she countered.

“That’s not what I – it’s my orders.”

Sara opened her mouth to speak, but shut it again. She did this several times before giving what sounded like a very controlled answer, “fine.”

“Sara…you can talk to me.”

“I am talking to you,” Sara immediately went on the defence. She had her arms crossed in the best way she could, and was chewing her bottom lip, “it’s fine, Scott.”

Scott raised his arms in a submissive manner, “alright, I’ll keep you updated.”

“Good, I’m glad you will this time,” and before he could even do anything Sara stormed out of the meeting room and down the ramp. Scott resisted the urge to kick something. He hoped that Lexi was right and this would help in the long run, because right now he felt like he was making their already fragile relationship worse.   

He sighed, “oh Sara…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boy oh boy oh BOY. This was a fun chapter but man is Scott's tone hard to get right - it's hard to write a completely different character to Sara, especially because Scott is so factual compared to Sara who is quite emotional. I'm worried Scott is too emotional. 
> 
> Chapter 9 is on the way, except I'm an idiot and accidentally deleted most of it soooo I have to re-write it but it's getting there, I'm happy with where it's going. 
> 
> I hope everyone likes this update (sorry it took so long)!


	9. Bonding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew reaches Kadara - much to Sara's annoyance, and she and Jaal get left behind while the others go out on a mission.

“Well, this is shit.”

Sara felt a wave of sulphur gas lash across her face, and a nasty sweat was already developing in places that sweat should never develop in. She stretched her newly freed and fully healed arm out to shield her face from the wind.

 “As in ‘this is authentic and actually rad’ kind of shit?” Liam asked playfully in a terrible imitation of her voice.

“No, this is _actually_ shit,” Sara grumbled.

“Aw come on, you haven’t even made it off of the ramp yet!” Peebee laughed and Sara looked down to notice she was standing at the bottom of the Tempest’s ramp and completely unwilling to leave it.

Sara turned to see Jaal standing comfortably in the cargo bay with a very stubborn expression on his face.

“You coming Jaal?” Peebee teased.

“No,” he stated stiffly and returned to the comfort of the ship. Sara knew Jaal hated Kadara, but she didn’t realise she hated it _that_ much. She rolled her eyes and stepped off of the ramp and into the docking bay; curious eyes were on them as they made their way through.

It was late into Kadara’s night, and there wasn’t much that the crew could do at this hour, so several of them including Cora, Peebee, Liam and Sara were headed to Tartarus. Sara didn’t know much about it except Peebee told her to wear something other than Initiative sweats, so Sara was decked in the nicest shirt she owned and a pair of skin-tight black pants.

 “So what is Tartarus exactly?” Sara asked the group.

“A club down in the slums,” Liam answered.

“You mean the absolute dive in the slums,” Cora corrected him, “which you like frequenting I might add because of the asari dancers?”

“What?” Liam’s voice rose, “that’s not the reason at all!”

Cora cocked an eyebrow at him and Peebee was snorting with laughter, “well I mean, that’s why _I_ go there!” she admitted.

Sara and Liam looked at each other before bursting into laughter while Cora facepalmed. They descended into the elevator and walked over to the doors of the club. Sara could already hear the loud music blasting against the doors, and it had already begun to vibrate on her chest. The doors opened with a whoosh and the dark club was absolutely packed with people – Andromeda and Milky Way natives alike – the sulphur mixed with alcohol and sweat, and Sara wrinkled her nose in response.

The crew found seats by the bar, and Cora ordered four shots of what looked like a very mean drink. Sara eyed it appreciatively, “what is this?” she shouted over the music.

“Asari hard liquor,” Cora answered and the four of them swallowed their drinks in one gulp, the sensation immediate as the alcohol overwhelmed Sara’s senses giving her a pleasant tingling and buzzing sensation.

After another shot, and then a third Peebee and Cora shimmied their way onto the dancefloor, the two women attracting immediate attention – and in many ways Sara couldn’t blame them but she wasn’t worried, if anyone could handle themselves it was those two. She and Liam remained at the edge of the bar; simply staring into the crowd and taking in the dancers who Sara realised were behind bars for their own protection.

It wasn’t just asari like it had been in the Milky Way; there were humans, turians and even salarians dancing behind the bars – both male and female. Sara also noted that clubbing wasn’t something that was hated by angara, she admired both male and female angara letting loose on the dancefloor.

Liam shouted something in her ear, but Sara missed what he said as he stood up and disappeared into the crowd. Sara shrugged, and turned back to the bar debating if she should get any more drinks.

As soon as Liam had vacated his seat another human male sat down, most of him in shadow due to the darkness of the club combined with outside being dark. He tapped his fingers impatiently onto the bar and the bartender poured him two drinks, one of which he slid to her.

“Rough day?” he asked, his voice betraying an accent. From what Sara could gather in the darkness he had dark, sharp features and dark hair with a lean frame.

“Rough week,” Sara replied, holding up her drink before swallowing it in a gulp and wincing against the alcohol slicing down her throat. The shot, her fourth, hit her like a ton of bricks.

She swayed from the alcohol, holding her forehead. In the Milky Way her alcohol tolerance had been exceptional but with the already three shots of asari hard liquor in her system she was feeling the effects.

“What brings you to Kadara?” he asked, delicately sipping his alcohol.

“Business,” Sara replied, feeling ill from the shot of alcohol and too overwhelmed to be talking to someone. She could hear Cora’s words echoing in her head.

_This is Kadara and it is not a typical Initiative world,_ Cora had explained, _even after all of the work your brother has done the people here are exiles – they don’t like the Nexus and they’re dangerous._

A hand came onto her shoulder and Sara jumped in fright, turning to reveal a tired-looking Cora with a thoroughly danced out Peebee by her shoulder.

“You alright?” Cora asked, face full of concern.

“Yeah, yeah,” Sara replied, nursing her forehead.

“We better head back,” Cora said as Liam returned to the group, Sara noticing a worry line between her eyebrows as a flash of the club’s lights flashed over her face. She helped Sara to her feet and put a gentle arm around her shoulder, guiding her through the sweaty bodies and back to the warm bed that the Tempest promised.

Sara creased her eyebrows; she had decided she was never coming back here.

xXx

“We’ve got a busy day ahead of us,” Scott said to the gathered crew in the cargo bay as he paced up and down, hands on his armoured hips. Sara resisted the urge to shove his busy day up his ass as she sat at the back of the group with her arms crossed.

“I’m going to split the team into two groups. Drack and Vetra – you’ll be coming with me as we’ll be exploring one of the areas that the scientists have determined the kett came from. Cora, you’ll be leading team two with Liam and Peebee.”

Cora saluted at his words, and Sara had to resist the urge to mime vomiting behind Cora’s back. She couldn’t understand why she was being so petty, considering how nice Cora was being to her. Scott made eye contact with Sara and she stared her brother down.

“No rem-tech?” Peebee asked.

“Not today,” Scott answered, his eyes breaking contact with Sara’s to acknowledge Peebee.

“Who gets the Nomad?” Liam asked eagerly, bouncing on his heels.

“I do,” Scott stated, “I requested that you will go with Kaetus and will take a shuttle to your drop point.”

“Oh, okay,” Liam replied, slightly crestfallen and Sara hid her snort behind her hand.

“Kallo, Suvi, Gil – I’m entrusting you three to do our supply run through Kadara and pick up the necessary items we need. Lexi you’re on medical supplies.”

“We can handle that,” Suvi spoke up while Kallo nodded.

“Wonderful, we leave in 10,” Scott dismissed. Sara raised an eyebrow, had she been really given nothing to do? She jumped off of the crate she had been sitting on as Scott called out, “Jaal, Sara, over here please!”

 Sara resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she and Jaal made their way over to Scott who was rubbing his temples with his armoured hand. She noticed up close that Scott’s personalised armour had buffs and scratches all over it, and the N7 on the chestplate looked worn.

“You two will be cleaning all of our weapons for us.”

“Won’t – won’t you need those?” Sara asked as if her brother had forgotten his brain.

“We’re taking back-ups. Lately we just haven’t had the time for weapons to be cleaned and I saw the perfect chance for you and Jaal to do something today since you’re not coming on the mission.”

“Rightio,” Sara replied, resisting the urge to give a mock salute. Scott nodded and turned on his heel, sauntering off.

Sara turned to Jaal who looked just as dumbfounded as she felt, “well, best get to the armoury then.”

“Mmm,” Jaal commented, the two of them making their way to the top of the ship while members of the crew dashed around them. Well, Kallo was mainly doing the dashing – Drack was grimacing in the corner and cocking his gun which Sara could tell he wasn’t used to.

The ship grew quiet as Jaal and Sara sat easily on the floor of the armoury, “I wonder who’s is who’s?” Sara asked herself as she looked at all of the guns piled haphazardly on top of one another.

“Hmm,” Jaal questioned, “maybe we should make a game of it?”

“Okay,” Sara agreed, “do I get something for getting them all right?”

“The sastisfaction of knowing your crew?”

Sara laughed, “sounds good to me.”

“Okay – easy one first,” Jaal smiled, Sara noticed he seemed to be enjoying having a one-up on her, “which one is mine?”

“Easy peasy,” Sara laughed, pulling the huge kett sniper rifle out from under the pile. She handed it to him and he smiled at her.

“How about something a little more challenging? Find Vetra’s.”

Sara looked over all of the weapons – some of them were easy to pinpoint – the little sidewinder would definitely be Peebee’s weapon of choice. Sara also saw a bunch of kett weapons she had never seen before, pulling out what she thought to be an assault rifle.

“Hm, Vetra seems resourceful – would she be using this?”

Jaal chuckled, “nope – that is your brother’s weapon.”

“Scott uses kett weaponry?”

“Yes,” Jaal answered, “the one you’re looking for is this one,” Jaal pulled out a cyclone assault rifle – medium class but it looked heavily modified.

“This is not the weapon I would’ve guessed for Vetra,” Sara wrinkled her nose, “it’s such a mediocre gun - it bounces all over the place.”

“I fixed that for her,” Jaal explained, pointing out the additions he had made to the gun, “I changed the recoil on it so it ‘bounces’ less as you say, and fixed rate of fire and thermal clip capacity.”

“I wish Scott would let me have a look at his stuff,” Sara said, pulling out the other kett weapon which looked to be a shotgun, and Jaal sighed enviously.

“The Dhan is an extremely powerful gun and I wish Scott would let me tinker with it. I could make so many modifications and change aspects that he complains about,” Jaal explained.

The two of them continued to guess weapons with Sara only mixing up Cora’s and Liam’s. Jaal and Sara continued to bond over speaking about weaponry and how they would fix everyone’s guns if given free reign.

“SAM, who is currently onboard?” Sara asked when the two of them finishing cleaning everyone’s guns. Sara stood and stretched her cramped muscles, sighing in satisfaction at her joints popping.

“Just you and Jaal,” SAM replied in his emotionless voice.

“What would you like to do?” Jaal asked. Sara shrugged her shoulders as they made their way back into the bowels of the ship. Sara stood looking over the cargo bay – which looked very bare without the Nomad sitting in the middle.

“I wonder what’s in those boxes…” Sara pondered, stepping onto the elevator and then rummaging through a pile of boxes in the corner.

“What are you looking for?” Jaal asked.

“Nothing in particular,” Sara pondered, until she felt the familiarity of something she hadn’t felt in a very, very long time, “oh my god.”

“What is it?” Jaal asked, stepping forward. Sara pulled a dusty guitar from amongst the boxes and sighed to herself. Memories flashed through her of sitting on her bed as a teenager strumming tunes on her acoustic guitar.

“It’s a guitar,” Sara explained, wiping the dust from the strings, “a musical instrument,” she added and Jaal nodded.

“You can play?”

“Not well,” Sara admitted, plucking the different strings and wincing as they weren’t in tune and tuned them accordingly by ear. Once they all sounded correct she pulled her fingers down the strings, the sounds filling her like a warm drink.

“I would like to hear you play,” Jaal’s voice cut into her thoughts and she spotted him sitting eagerly on a pile of boxes that looked ready to give under his frame.

“Okay,” Sara smiled at Jaal’s enthusiasm and thought over all of the songs she knew – none of them would strike a chord with Jaal but she picked one from one of her favourite artists, “my music taste is regarded as…terrible by any human I know.”

“Why?”

“According to everyone I like the worst period for music – and that’s because my father hated what I liked as he used to say he liked the ‘best period for music’.”

“Which was?”

“1970’s and 1980’s,” Sara explained, strumming the chords absent-mindedly, “I liked 2000’s and 2010’s personally. To reiterate how old that all is I was born in 2163.”

“Wow,” Jaal mused, “but old music can remain very important for many people. Music is incredibly important to angara as we pass teachings and knowledge through it.”

Sara nodded, feeling the strings and beginning to play one of her favourite songs from one of her favourite artists – now over 800 years dead – but the memory of him alive as she sung his words. Her singing voice was not spectacular, Sara often remarked Scott had the better voice, but she still sung anyway. The tune needed the words.

When she had finished Jaal’s blue eyes were wide and filled with what Sara thought were tears, “oh gosh Jaal, did I upset you?”

“Upset me? No no,” Jaal gave his infectious deep laugh, “that was beautiful, you play and sing beautifully Sara.”

Sara felt the familiar pleasurable feeling in her stomach she always felt when Jaal said her name aloud. It was the way the sounds rolled over his tongue.

“Thank you,” Sara smiled, her eyes lost in Jaal’s, “would you like to have a go?”

“Yes,” Jaal replied, and Sara handed him the guitar which he grasped awkwardly in his hands.

“No, like this,” Sara corrected his grip, with his right hand over the strings and his left on the neck, “so when you want to play a certain note you hold down specific strings here-,” she held down his left hand over the strings on the neck, “and play here,” demonstrating the movement required with his right hand.

“But uh…” Sara motioned to his fused fingers, “those might be a problem.”

Jaal looked at his hands, “maybe the gee-tar is not on my list of talents,” he laughed and Sara joined him.

“Whatcha doing?” a shrill voice asked and both Sara and Jaal looked up to see Peebee’s face poking over the side of the upper level. Jaal startled and nearly dropped the guitar, Sara took it off of his hands and placed it back where she had found it, maybe another of the crew used it.

“Peebee! Where did you come from?” Sara asked.

“Ran ahead and came through the armoury looking for you two! But here I found you! What were you doing then hmm?”

“Showing Jaal how to play the guitar,” Sara replied honestly and motioned to the guitar which was now back where they had found it, “how was the mission?”

“Bloody awful,” Liam commented as he entered the cargo-bay. Both he and Peebee looked dreadful, their faces were covered with bruises and dirt and their underclothing and, in Liam’s case, hair was singed.

The rest followed, Vetra supporting a semi-conscious Cora, who had sustained a cut on her forehead and was dragging her feet along the ground. Drack followed, carrying his prosthetic arm in his good hand leaving nothing where his arm normally was – the sight was horrifying and the skin on the back of Sara’s neck crawled. Sara couldn’t help but notice that part of the arm had been blasted off.

“What the hell happened?” Sara asked as Drack, Cora and Vetra made their way to the med-bay.

“There were hundreds,” Drack grunted, “and not just what we think,” and he disappeared into the med-bay where Lexi jumped up and wore a pained expression on her face. Sara stared at the now closed doors, not really wanting to know what had gone wrong.

xXx

Once a replacement prosthetic limb had been attached Drack had spoiled them with one of his famous stews that Sara had heard all about. She enjoyed all of the flavours dancing on her palate. The crew however were downright miserable, to the point that Scott was not with them. Sara was smushed into the corner with Drack on one side and Peebee on the other.

“Anyone got any amusing stories?” Suvi asked; wanting to deflect the crew from the terrible day they’d had. Most of them grunted in response, not wanting to speak.

“I’ve got one!” Sara piped up.

Several of the crew looked at her half-heartily before returning to their food.

“I jumped into the presidium lake naked.”

Gil spat out his drink while Vetra dropped her fork, the entire crew stopped eating to stare at her.

“Hang on… _what_?” Cora asked, open-mouthed.

“Okay,” Liam butted in, “we need to hear this from the beginning.”

“Unlike my brother, I was a bit of a…well, _bad girl_.”

“I think we can gather that after you told everyone you made out with a batarian on Omega,” Gil commented and Peebee snorted with laughter.

“Yeah, yeah,” Sara shrugged it off, “anyway, I was with two krogan friends and my human mate. We were doing stupid shit kids do, we’d had ryncol and were stumbling around the presidium – no one questioned my presence because I was Alec Ryder’s kid so they naturally accepted the company I was with. Anyway, we came across the lake and they bet 1000 credits I wouldn’t do it.”

“Do what?”

“They specifically asked me to climb the krogan monument naked and then jump into the lake. And, because I was young, drunk and incredibly stupid of course I did it.”

The crew erupted into laughter, Liam wiping a tear from his eye and Drack’s deep tones vibrating the whole room, Sara joined in. Even Cora who was usually pretty serious had a small smirk across her face that she not-so-subtly hid with her hand.

“What happened then?” Gil asked through his tears.  

“One of the krogan pulled me out because a drunken woman should not swim, especially naked, and then a keeper found us in one of the bushes.”

The second round of laughter chorused around the room.

“Did…did yeh get the money?” Suvi could barely contain her laughter as she tried to speak.

“I did. However, I didn’t get to keep it. Obviously my father found out and he confiscated it. He was not too happy.”

“Worth it,” Liam nodded in approval, and took a swig of beer.

“How old were you when you did this?” Jaal asked.

“Fifteen.”

“Damn girl,” Drack slapped her on the back with so much force it nearly sent Sara headfirst into her nearly empty plate. The crew began to speak freely with a much lighter tone.

That is until they fell into an uneasy silence.

“Sara?”

Sara looked up to see her brother standing in the doorway. His eyes betrayed his tiredness as he signalled her out of the room. She followed him into the crew quarters where he paced in front of her.

“Is everything…okay?” Sara asked, unsure of what to say to Scott. He was still in his under armour and had dirt smeared over him and his hair was completely haphazard and out of place. He looked into her eyes, dark circles surrounded them and the sclera was bloodshot.

“Are you ready for combat?”

Sara arched an eyebrow as Scott’s sudden change of heart, “I think so?”

“Isn’t this what you wanted?”

She was shocked at his rather harsh tone, “...yes?”

“Good. Tomorrow you’re coming with me – Vetra is leading team two.”

“What about Cora?”

“I’m rotating Drack and Cora – I have no choice in the matter. As you have probably seen Drack had his prosthetic arm blown off and Cora has sustained a concussion and multiple fractured ribs.”

“Are you sure you want me coming out? I thought Lexi said-”

“To hell with what Lexi said,” Scott stated matter of factly, “we got decimated because I left my two best snipers in the Tempest. You and Jaal will be coming with me tomorrow, Peebee and Liam will be with Vetra.”

“Okay,” Sara said, really unsure of what else she could add and Scott left the room without a backward glance. Sara’s breathing picked up and she slid to the floor, leaning against her bunk and staring at the terminal screen.  

Jaal entered the crew quarters and noticed her on the floor, “Sara! Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” Sara said in a tone that sounded quite unlike her own, “I am…Scott just said that I’m accompanying him tomorrow. As are you.”

Jaal grunted, “Did he say why?”

“Nope.”

Jaal sat down awkwardly beside her, his legs always looking a little odd when straight out in front of him, “maybe they did so terribly without their usual weapons?”

“I’ll say,” Sara replied.  

“Well, this’ll be interesting,” Jaal replied, and placed his hand over hers. Sara’s tension released at the small touch. Maybe being in real combat wouldn’t be so bad. After all, what else could go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. 
> 
> You know what I don't even have an excuse anymore for not uploading. The long and short of it is that I wrote this chapter and somehow lost most of it much to my annoyance, and I couldn't get the mojo to write it again. Cue a lot of mental health issues including crippling anxiety and seasonal affective disorder - along with a few massive fights I've had with friends over the last few months and I'm a walking, talking, Vitamin D deficient mess of a human. 
> 
> I've really hit a block, but the chapter is written and I'm working on the next chapter now :) If anyone is still around - thank you for reading. It means a lot to me :)


	10. Trapped

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara and Jaal go on a mission only to end up in a situation neither of them bargained for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to give a shout-out to WickedWitchoftheWilds for their lovely comments on nearly every chapter! Thank you so much! And to everyone who comments - you're the best. It really motivates me to keep writing!

“Sara?”

Her eyes opened to the bottom of the bunk and she looked over to see Cora standing in the doorframe. The biotic looked, and there was no way Sara could put it nicely, terrible. She had a black eye and multiple bruises dotted over her skin.

“Cora,” Sara said, pulling herself out of bed and fumbling around to find her under-armour.

“You’ve overslept,” Cora stated; which Sara already knew as no one else was in the crew quarters, “you’ve got 30.”

“Rightio,” Sara stifled a yawn and made her way to the gallery, Cora stepped out of the way and Sara didn’t miss her hand grabbing her side – she knew the broken ribs were bothering Cora more than she let on.

All too soon after shoving several protein bars in her mouth and a swig of espresso Sara was standing in the cargo bay with the rest of the crew, her legs visibly shaking under the armour. She pulled at her glove and when looking up and seeing her brother, kicked herself internally for not bothering to make her own armour.

_I just need some good schematics – mental note to ask Peebee later._

Jaal stood easily next to her, resting on one leg with his arms crossed and watching Scott pace up and down the crew. Even on a sick day, Cora and Drack stood at attention. Unlike Cora, Drack looked perfectly fine and was seemingly itching to get back on the battlefield but Lexi had forbidden it – the 1400 year old krogan was running on an exoskeleton at this point and Sara quietly agreed him being pulled for now was for the best.

Scott looked comfortable as he fiddled with his Thokin, “I’m sure everyone is familiar with the plans? Sara and Jaal will be coming with me – and Vetra you will be leading the other team with Liam and Peebee. I’ll fill you in as we go – Cora and Drack I want you two resting and the others are free to continue with jobs around the ship. Dismissed.”

Scott motioned for them to follow, and Sara followed the others out of the ship and into Kadara Port. She noticed that people around them looked at them differently when they were fully armoured – a hint of nervousness or aggression was present but Sara couldn’t tell which. Sara fiddled with her helmet’s settings and bought up Scott’s and Jaal’s vitals.

“Nervous?” Peebee asked quietly falling back to talk to her.

“A bit,” Sara replied as they walked through the port to a huge door that Sara had never seen before. Two krogans nodded at them and opened the door, leading them into a dark building that reminded Sara of shabby alleyways around the Citadel.  

“Kaetus,” Scott nodded at a white-faced turian with blue markings and a glowing grey-and-blue suit.

“Ryder,” the turian nodded back, “Sloane is expecting you,” he stepped out of the way and allowed them to walk into a dimly lit room with orange light streaming through the blinds. The whole feel of the room was dark and creepy and Sara felt herself standing closely to Jaal as they approached who Sara guessed was Sloane.

Sloane was a dark-skinned very serious woman who had a multitude of what Sara described as bizarre looking tattoos including a smudge-like one on her face and blue dots under her beautifully coloured eyes – Sara had never met a human with heterochromia iridum - and wondered if Sloane’s eye colour was natural or artificial. Either way, the one blue and one brown eye was visually striking.

“Ryder – what can I do for you?” Sloane drawled.

“I’m here as I’d like you to help me,” Scott replied, “You know the situation.”

“I do, yes, but why should I send my people out to help you?”

“This just doesn’t affect the Initiative, it affects Kadara Port too,” Scott explained, “the very presence of new species of kett is something that we do not take lightly and-”

“Don’t give me the military speech,” Sloane cut him off. Sara was taken aback, hadn’t her brother saved Sloane’s life? Why on Earth was she being so rude? “I will send Kaetus and a team with you, if and only if you help me track down the Charlatan?”

Scott groaned, “He still bothering you?”

“I’ve heard reports that he still lurks around the port, but I’m unable to find the slippery bastard.”

“Deal,” Scott said, “I will assist in tracking him down.”

“Good,” Sloane replied before lounging back easily in what Sara could only describe as a throne. They made their exit back through the doors and met with Kaetus. Scott turned to face them all, “right – so Vetra, Liam and Peebee you’ll be going with Kaetus and the team to provide the heavier distraction force. Jaal, Sara, you’ll be coming with me and infiltrating ‘round the back’, hence why I’d like snipers on my side.”

The crew moved with Kaetus to a ship in which they all clambered into and made their way over the barren landscape of Kadara. Sara hadn’t been outside the port before and was taken aback at how desolate Kadara looked despite it being a number of months since Meridian was activated.

Jaal was moaning beside her, “are you alright?” Sara asked him.

He groaned, “I hate it here.”

Sara looked over the land, she could feel the sulphur tang through the armour and remembered the shittiness of the bar, “me too,” she finally decided.

Even through the armour Sara felt a small arm wrap gently around her waist and noticed Peebee had come up beside her, “you got this girlfriend!” she said in a low voice.

“Thanks girl,” Sara gave a weak smile.

“Remember you’ve got Zap!”

Sara slapped a hand to her forehead but it hit the helmet, “shit! That’s what I forgot!”

Peebee chuckled and pushed on Sara’s helmet causing a giggle to come from her too, and Peebee’s arm tightened around her waist. Sara cast her eyes over everyone in the ship, no one was really paying attention but at the last moment she caught Scott staring at her and Peebee. She blushed and looked away from him, not wanting him to think she was immature.  

The ship landed and Scott climbed out with Sara and Jaal following. The ship rose behind them and sped off, Sara squinting into the sky after it. The ground was gritty and she gave it a kick for good measure sending grit and what looked like mushrooms flying.  

“Wow…” Sara bent down, pulling at what resembled grass but happened to be mushroom-like into her gloved palm.

“Sara…focus,” Scott called out, and Sara snapped to attention to find her brother gazing over her.

“Right – sorry,” Sara replied, pulling the Widow sniper rifle from her back and walking through the landscape which was both sharply hilly and flat at the same time. Sara had no idea what Scott was looking for, but she and Jaal followed.

Scott held up his fist which caused Sara to halt in her tracks, something about the air had changed. The wind bought uneasiness and before she could take another breath Scott screamed out, “MOVE!”

Jaal grabbed her by the suit and using his jet-pack propelled them to the side and the safety of a rather large rocky overhang. A huge explosion went off where they had been standing earlier causing the sound to reverberate through Sara’s head.

“Right, jet-pack,” Sara mumbled quietly to herself as gunshots whizzed past their hiding spot. Sara took a chance to peek out and saw a handful of what looked like Milky Way species in red suits shooting at them. She felt a bullet graze her arm, causing her shield to take the brunt of the hit.

“Shit!” Scott muttered, peering his head out before pulling it back, “fuck – no one was supposed to be here!”

“We’ll do what we do best,” Sara replied, extending her rifle before positioning the gun from around the rock and peering into the scope. She put the target over one of the enemies’ helmeted heads and steadied her breathing, squeezing the trigger. The gun sounded and the enemy fell over dead.

The enemies paused for a second and then began shooting with more ferocity.

“Right, good,” Scott replied and a blue field generated around him – and he rushed into the thicket of the enemies and sent them flying in a torrent of gunshots and biotics. Jaal smiled at Sara before pulling out his own sniper rifle.

Sara had her target in the scope but the enemy’s head popped off before she could pull the trigger – she glared over at Jaal who had a coy smile playing on his lips.

“You-,” Sara went to curse but got cut off by a bullet whizzing past her head. She activated her tactical cloak and went in for another shot, and smirked at Jaal’s befuddled look. She and Jaal continued their game with the two of them shooting as fast as possible to take enemies out. Sara groaned as she missed a shot on a turian whom she had drained the shields of.

“Fuck,” she muttered, hating the fact she had to reload after only one shot while Jaal smirked as he had several bullets to empty before a reload.

The krogan on the battlefield took a good shot or two from Sara’s widow along with Scott flinging biotics at it combined with Jaal emptying his gun before it went down.

“Clear,” SAM told them. Sara stretched her cramping muscles, and secured the Widow into place on her back. All of the enemies lay in crumpled heaps on the ground, and Sara swallowed a lump in her throat as she moved between them to reach Scott. It had been a long time since she had been in active combat.  

“Nice work,” Scott panted, securing his shotgun to his back before bending down and examining one of the enemies.

“Who are these guys?” Sara asked, bending down beside her brother to have a look at a helmeted human.

“Raiders,” Scott replied, “usually Milky Way races although the odd angara will join the ranks – they’re pirates – usually exiles.”

“Uh huh,” Sara commented, cringing at a dead turian. His mandibles had been ripped off, the blue blood was pouring from the wounds.  

“I think I took out more enemies,” Jaal said as he came up beside her, causing Sara to thwack him on the arm.

“Only ‘cause your gun has more bullets in a clip!”

“I could modify-,”

“There’s already a modified version called the Black Widow – if I could just find one.”

“Focus!” Scott growled.

“Sorry,” Sara mumbled, staring at her shoes and looking at Jaal from the corner of her eye, the angara however was grinning.

They continued to move, now being extra vigilant since the surprise attack from the raiders. Eventually the three of them were headed to what looked like a cave. Scott directed them behind a rock formation and Sara heard the gunshots in the distance.

“That’s the other team,” Scott muttered, “how is everyone doing over there?” he asked over the comms.

Vetra’s voice sounded hazy as the background was filled with gunfire, “Held down over here but advancing slowly.”

“Good – we’ve made it to the side – keep them busy.”

“Will do,” Vetra’s sharp reply played through Sara’s helmet.

“And…” Scott seemed to hesitate before hurriedly saying, “Good luck.”

“Love you too,” Vetra said diplomatically and Sara could almost imagine her mandibles flicking out in a turian smile, the image caused her to smile too. She, Scott and Jaal eased their way to the side of the ‘cave’ as Sara was calling it to sit by the entrance and make sure they weren’t followed.

“You go, I’ll cover you,” Scott said to the pair of them. Sara nodded and eased her way into the cave with Jaal following so closely behind her she could hear his ragged breathing.

Sara stood upright as they reached a small room like area through the thin cavern; there was nothing in the cave that Sara could pick up via her scanner but thankfully they had enough natural light coming through to illuminate the room including the stalactites and stalagmites dripping, much to Sara’s relief as cold cramped places were not exactly to her liking.

“There’s nothing here Scott, we were duped,” she turned to her brother who she just realised was not with them.  

“Scott?” Sara asked cautiously, taking a step toward the entry.

Without warning a loud crack sounded above them and the sound of crumbling rock plummeting to the ground screamed through the cave. Sara felt herself being pulled sharply as far away as possible from the tumbling rocks.

“Scott?” Sara called through the cavern once the rocks had held still, but no response was heard. She felt the room shake slightly, but it held steady.

“SCOTT?!”

Silence.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Sara held her hand over her mouth as she paced up and down the small area of cave she had. The little amount of light they had had while walking in here was completely cut off by the cave-in.

“Shit!” Sara whisper-yelled, terrified a shout would cause another cave-in, potentially crushing her and Jaal. The only sounds to be heard was her ragged breathing combined with the dripping.

“Have you got access to your comms?” Sara asked Jaal. The only source of light was Jaal’s blue visor which illuminated the top half of his face.

“No.”

“SAM?” Sara asked hesitantly in a last-ditch attempt.

“Sara.”

Sara exhaled with relief, “SAM – what’s going on?”

“Your comms have been cut off by the cave-in. I am able to contact the Pathfinder – he is uninjured and on the outside of the cave you are currently located in. If you will allow it I can establish a neural link between you.”

“Please, do it.”

“One moment.”

The room was still as Sara waited and then she heard Scott’s voice sound through her head.

_Sara? Sara? Are you okay?_

“We’re fine Scott,” Sara said aloud, hoping her brother could hear her and Jaal didn’t think she was a crazy person.

_SAM has said the cave is steady – I tried moving the rocks with my biotics but he warned me that moving something could go badly._

“Please send help,” Sara said, “I would really like to not be crushed today please.”

She could hear Scott repress a laugh, _will do – I’ll go for help and assist the others, I’ll let you know if anything happens._

“Thank you,” Sara whispered and the neural link went dead. She stood silently for a moment before reaching for her helmet’s night vision.

“How were you talking just now?”

“SAM linked us through our implants,” Sara replied, frustrated that she couldn’t find the toggle for her night vision in her helmet.

“Strange,” Jaal audibly shuddered.

“Why can’t I-?” Sara gritted her teeth and the helmet was jiggling in Sara’s furious attempt to turn on her night vision, “there’s no-.”

“I remember Liam complaining about that,” Jaal said idly, “there’s no night vision in standard armour.”

“Fuck!” Sara cried, but thankfully the cavern didn’t move. She pulled the helmet off in frustration and activated the light in her armour via her omni-tool.

_Remaining power: 22% (1hr 01mins)_

“FUCK!” Sara roared, throwing her helmet across the ‘room’ and smiling in satisfaction as it made a snap against a rock but her grin was replaced with a grimace as she wanted to kick every single rock out of Kadara’s orbit.

The reality of their situation was dawning on her. The two of them were trapped in an unsteady cave in the side of a hill on Kadara – one of the most uninhabitable planets in the galaxy. They had no natural resources to keep them afloat.

Sara pulled her chest plate and arm armour off leaving just her under-armour exposed and went digging for the protein bars she kept for when she needed the extra boost on missions – and she only had three. A bar was not a meal replacement. Her water level was low, as she assumed they were only going to be headed out for a short period of time.

And she was stuck with the worst possible companion in a food-sense as Jaal only carried his nutrient paste which not only tasted revolting to humans but wouldn’t be nutritious anyway.

The realisation of being in a dark space with a failing light frightened Sara – she could almost feel the walls closing in around her.  She felt short, shallow breaths in her chest, and her heart began to pound.

She needed to _get out_. But she couldn’t. There was no way out of the cave – Scott had tried but failed. What if they never got out? What if she and Jaal were stuck in here until they died of dehydration, or hunger, or suffocated from lack of oxygen?

That was _not_ going to happen, but the thoughts crept in _what if it does?_  

“Shit,” Sara whispered, wrapping her arms around her torso. The air kept getting caught in her chest and her heart was pounding in her eardrums. Tears poured thick and fast down her cheeks. Her brain felt out of control, she couldn’t pull herself in and just _think_.

‘You are suffering a panic attack, Sara,’ SAM alerted, and she rolled her eyes.

“No shit,” she spat out through gritted teeth as tears continued to flow. Her heart felt as though it was being crushed by an anvil and her body began to shake uncontrollably. She stepped backward and felt her legs give from under her, but before she could hit the rocks huge arms caught her and held her steadfast.

“Sara?” Jaal asked tentatively. Her legs gave way and Jaal was supporting her entire weight, he lowered her to the ground and sat firmly beside her, a hand on her shoulder as if to steady her.

“Sara?” he asked again when she did not respond. She didn’t trust herself to speak. Her teeth were chattering from the shaking and a sob racked her chest. She pulled her knees up and rested her chin on them in an almost upright foetal position.

“Is this like last time – on Eos?” Jaal asked and Sara nodded; another sob surfacing. She could feel embarrassment in the back of her mind which was making her panic attack worse. She couldn’t _believe_ she was having a meltdown in front of Jaal _again._ Having panic attacks in front of people was one thing…but Jaal was another.

She stole a chance to look into Jaal’s eyes and was horrified to spot fresh tears on his face. She felt disgust rise in her chest, that her own stupidity was hurting Jaal too. She tried desperately to pull herself back together but the more she tried the more the panic continued to grab her.

Without thinking about what she was doing she wrapped her arms tightly around Jaal’s waist and all but crawled into his lap. She buried her face into his chest and continued to cry. Maybe the tears were the best way to release the stress so her body would calm the fuck down.

Jaal started to hum a tune that was unfamiliar to Sara, and began to rub his hand gently up and down Sara’s back in what she assumed as an attempt to calm her down. The gentle touch bought Sara’s thoughts back to reality for a brief moment for her to remember to breathe – which was the strategy that she was supposed to do.

“Deep breaths,” she mumbled into Jaal’s chest as she deliberately focused on slowing and regulating her breathing. One breath in through the nose – hold for several seconds – release through the mouth – repeat. Sara did this over and over until she could slowly feel her heart slowing down. Jaal’s hand continued to run up and down her back along with sending out soft bioelectricity every so often, forcing Sara’s muscles to relax in response.

“Sara?” Jaal asked gently after what felt like a long time. For how long Sara had been sitting in Jaal’s lap with her arms around him and face in his chest she had no idea.

“Mmm?” Sara mumbled in response. The tears had finally stopped.

“Are you feeling better?”

Sara took a deep breath in and released it, her head didn’t feel like it was out of control anymore and nor was her heart racing – it still throbbed in her chest, the last remnants of the anxiety attack, “yes,” she replied weakly.

“Are you still anxious?” Jaal asked with a sense of gentleness and curiosity.

Sara shook her head, “just tired. It tends to happen after an anxiety attack.”

“What exactly is an anxiety attack?” Jaal asked.

“It’s…” Sara began, “it’s like a manifestation of anxiety I guess? It mimics the human body’s fight or flight response as in what happens when we are under threat but it triggers from being extremely anxious or stressed. Do angara not have something similar?”

“Hmm,” Jaal pondered, “not…quite. We definitely feel anxiety, but we do not experience the same thing. We generally are able to talk it out before it ever reaches a point like it did with you. Do they happen often?”

“Yes,” Sara admitted, shame flooding through her; “I’ve had quite a few in my life. I usually hide when I have them, aside from you and Peebee the only other person who’s ever found me was Scott. He found me in my room, and he sat with me much like you did.”

“You almost fell over…” Jaal trailed off, his arm not on her back getting tighter around her waist.

“A panic attack paralyses me, and I just fall over. It doesn’t happen to everyone, it’s something I do. I hate it,” Sara tried to explain, closing her eyes to more darkness.

“I’m so sorry you had to see that,” Sara apologized, “it’s not a part of me I like people seeing…”

“Sara,” Jaal began, “never feel ashamed for how you feel. Angara share our emotion very openly, it is not something shameful.”

“Thank you,” Sara tried to smile, “I just…humans are not as good as expressing how we feel. Normally I can bring myself back to reality but…” she trailed off.

Although now calmed down, Sara did not want to let go of Jaal and the angara seemed to have the same idea. He made no move away from her and if anything, it felt as though his grip on her waist tightened and his fingers continued to trail gently down her spine.

“I feel like shit,” Sara mumbled, wiping at her what she assumed to be red and puffy eyes.

“Your eyes are very inflamed,” Jaal commented.

“You can see-?” Sara began.

“My visor has night vision,” he stated and Sara slapped herself on the forehead.

“Well, that’s embarrassing,” Sara sniffled, wiping her nose with the back of her hand, “I had this friend when I was in school – no matter how hard she cried her eyes never went red. She referred to it as her ‘superpower’. I remember once she was sobbing, but afterward, she just looked a bit tired.”

“’Superpower’?” Jaal asked quizzically.

Sara chortled, “It came in handy. As for me, I resemble a tomato. Everyone knew I had been crying.”

“You still look beautiful to me,” Jaal replied simply, and Sara felt the blush creep to her cheeks despite the awkward timing of the comment.

“Sara,” SAM cut into her thoughts, ‘the Pathfinder is requesting another neural link with you. May I proceed?”

“Yes, SAM. Please connect me to Scott.”

“Establishing connection.”

_Sara? Can you hear me?_

“Yes Scott, I can hear you,” Sara replied, rolling her eyes much to Jaal’s amusement.

_Team’s here – SAM’s figured out a way to cut a path through the rocks. Hang tight – we’ll be there soon._

“Sounds good to me!” Sara perked up at the thought of a rescue. The neural link disconnected and Sara shook her head at the sudden emptiness.

“What’s happening?” Jaal asked curiously.

“They’re cutting through – not sure how long they’ll be,” Sara replied. As much as Sara couldn’t wait to get out of their tomb, she wasn’t ready to let go of Jaal just yet.

“Thank you for...y’know,” Sara rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.

“I am more than happy to support you in times of need Sara,” Jaal explained, “that is what friends are for, is it not?”

“You consider me a friend?” Sara asked.

“Yes, of course I do.”

Sara’s heart lifted, and as she picked up and secured the pieces of her armour and picking up her now broken helmet, the team broke through – natural light illuminated the cavern and Sara rushed toward it coming face to face with her brother.

“Sara…” Scott said, and before she gave him time to do anything else Sara had flung her arms around her brother’s neck. He staggered from her enthusiasm but she felt him give her an awkward pat on the back.

“How long were we in there?” Sara asked as she released her brother and squeezed through, breathing in the natural light and the vast openness of Kadara. She couldn’t help but fall to her knees and touch the earth and weird mushrooms beneath her.

“About four hours,” Vetra answered for her. Sara looked up to see Peebee smiling down at her, and with surprising strength for such a thin wiry frame, pulled Sara to her feet by the upper arm.

“Four…hours?” Jaal replied in shock. He was standing with his head in the air as if taking in as much sunlight as physically possible.

“What did you get up to in there?” Liam asked, raising an eyebrow and causing Jaal to give him a playful punch on the shoulder.

Sara and Jaal made eye contact, “not much really,” Sara said and Jaal nodded in agreement. The group began to move, and Sara sighed in relief when she spotted the drop ship nearby and a tired Kaetus standing by it.

“It was all for naught,” Scott explained as they all clambered into the ship, “we found absolutely nothing.”

“Well, fuck,” Sara replied.

“Also-,” Scott began, “what happened to your helmet?”

Sara held up the helmet and now in the light could take a proper look. The glass was cracked and the helmet had a rather large dent in it.

“It held up its end of the bargain,” Jaal cut in, “nobly saving Sara’s head from a rock.”

“Yes, that’s right!” Sara joined onto Jaal’s lie. Scott cocked an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

“Better get you two seen to by Lexi then,” Scott said and moved away from them to go and speak to Kaetus while Peebee took Scott’s spot.

“Thanks for covering me,” Sara smiled at the angara and he smiled back.

“That’s what friends are for,” he replied and winked at her.

 _Friends_ , yes that’ll do nicely.

For now anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooooh this is one of my FAVOURITE tropes ever - the two getting stuck in a room together and forced closeness occurs. I've seen this trope happen on Voeld before but I didn't want to copy that - but went, hmm how do I get them close without the cold? Boom - Sara's got anxiety. 
> 
> As someone who suffers from a probable undiagnosed anxiety disorder I experience freakouts, panic attacks and breakdowns on a reasonably frequent basis. So, a lot of Sara's panic attack symptoms are based on how I experience them including the paralysis and falling down. Once I had a panic attack while on the phone, and my friend heard me fall over when I tried to get up. I'm just a bit weird. 
> 
> Also the 'superpower' of the girl that doesn't get red eyes when she cries - that's based on me. Had to throw that in there, I'm very proud of my superpower. 
> 
> Kudos and comments are wildly appreciated! Thanks to y'all for reading!


	11. Therapy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara has two very wildly different therapy sessions and begins to learn which crewmates are looking after her on the Tempest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another shout-out to Phyice who has been commenting on every chapter lately! Thank you so so much your comments are hugely appreciated :D

Sara’s fantasies of a hot shower and a long sleep in a nice warm inviting bed were dashed when they stepped onto the Tempest.

Lexi stood in the middle of the cargo bay with her arms crossed tightly in front of her chest, one foot tapping impatiently. Sara stepped back slightly from Lexi’s threatening stare – which was directed at Scott rather than her.

“Scott Luke Ryder,” Lexi carefully enunciated every syllable.

“Lexi T’Perro,” Scott replied without missing a beat.

“Come with me,” Lexi beckoned and Scott followed without argument, leaving the crew standing awkwardly in the cargo bay. Sara thought she had gotten out of it until Lexi looked past her brother, “Sara Ryder and Jaal Ama Darav – this way please!”

“Oh boy,” Sara mumbled as she and Jaal made their way to the med-bay, the door snapping shut behind them.

Lexi’s glare could’ve melted steel, her eyes were narrowed in fury as she glared at Scott who was sitting awkwardly on the cot, refusing to look at anyone and seemingly fascinated with his feet.

“What in the _hell_ , Scott Ryder?” Lexi began, “I explicitly told you not to put your sister in an active combat situation! And what exactly did you do? You put your sister in an active combat situation!”

“I’m…right here,” Sara said aloud.

“She went fine;” Scott remained calm, “her shooting and agility are up to scratch. She’s just as good as Jaal is and he’s been in active combat for many months now.”

Lexi didn’t budge from her stance, “you clear it with me first, got it?”

“Got it,” Scott repeated.

“Again, I’m right here,” Sara raised her hand, “am I cleared for active combat now?”

Lexi rubbed her face and groaned, “As much as I detest Scott Ryder for putting you into combat – you’ve clearly proven me wrong. At this stage you are cleared for combat.”

“Great,” Sara smiled, trying to resist the urge to shout ‘yes’ and fist-pump. Scott gave a hint of a smile at her and she winked back at him.

Lexi did her usual post-mission check-up of all of them, and dismissed Scott and Jaal quickly, Sara however was not so lucky, “actually Sara, may I have a word?” Lexi asked as she tried to escape.

Sara sighed, “yeah, sure,” the windows of the med-bay dimmed and Sara took a seat on one of the cots.

“Your arm seems to be fine; you’re not feeling any strain or pain I should know about?”

“No,” Sara replied truthfully, stretching out her arm subconsciously.

Lexi nodded in approval, “excellent. Now, SAM has informed me that you and Jaal were trapped in a dark cave for over four hours. I wanted to know how you fared up. You’ve mentioned to me in our therapy sessions that you don’t like vaults as they remind you of…well,” Lexi trailed off, “I was wondering if the same fear would apply in a cave.”

Sara rubbed the back of her neck, “it was um, well, it wasn’t…good?”

“Would you like to elaborate?”

“I mean, my panic…took over…for a time,” Sara explained awkwardly, “but I managed to calm down. Jaal was really helpful in that, he’s such a sweetheart. He just sat with me as I got it all out.”

“So you fared ‘okayish’ from your recollection of the incident?”

“Eventually yeah, once the panic had subsided,” Sara replied, itching to get out of the room. Lexi nodded and made a few notes on her datapad.

“We’ll talk about this another time, I would like you to have some rest and eat two servings of protein and a serving of carbohydrates.”

“I will,” Sara replied.

“You may go,” Lexi held her hand to the door and the windows lightened back to normal. Sara leapt off of the bed and made her way into the hallway of the lower deck. Yawning and stretching Sara walked to the gallery and combed through the fridge, looking for something that would fill her food quota for the day.

After munching down on bread rolls and protein bars, she turned and leant on the sink blowing out a big breath she didn’t know she had been holding. The day’s events swam through her mind: the combat, the cave, the panic attack.

It was a day she was glad to see the end of, but also she had felt…safe in Jaal’s arms. There was no other way she could describe it. She could tell the angara cared for her, as she couldn’t imagine the others doing that. She snorted at the mental image of Drack holding her in his arms as she cried.

The doors of the gallery whizzed open to reveal the other asari on the ship. Peebee’s green eyes were shining with excitement.

“You!” Peebee pointed at her.

Sara looked behind her before turning back to Peebee and pointing to herself, “Me?”

“Yes! You! Me! Escape pod!”

“You know how that sounds right?” a deep voice asked.

Sara peered around Peebee to see Liam and Cora emerging from the crew quarters. They stole glances at each other before turning back to them. Peebee took Sara by the hand much to the amusement of Liam and slight surprise of Cora, and led her up the ladder and then into the escape pod. Poc was in the corner as normal, floating idly.

“I have something for you!” Peebee said excitedly, rummaging through her belongings and throwing random objects over her shoulder including what looked like a mechanical ball, several pairs of pants and countless datapads. 

“Eureka!” Peebee cried, holding out a datapad and handing it to Sara who took it with great interest.

“What is it?” she asked.

Peebee rolled her eyes, “open it silly!”

Sara opened the files on the datapad and her eyes widened; schematics for a full armour set were before her – and not just an Initiative armour set.

“It’s called remnant armour,” Peebee explained, flicking through the pictures to show Sara the plans on how to craft it, “aside from looking totally awesome – it also offers a huge boost to your health and shields while in combat, along with damage resistance. Whaddya think?”

“Oh _wow_ ,” Sara said, running her fingers over the picture of the armour.

“Don’t get too excited, you still have to _build_ the armour, but I figured you’d want to give Scott something to be jealous over.”

“Hell yes, you read me like a book – thank you Peebee!” Sara said and without thinking gave Peebee a tight hug, which to her relief the asari reciprocated.

“No worries!” Peebee replied chirpily, “now go – make armour!”

“I know exactly who to ask,” Sara smiled.

“Hey! HEY! Speaking of, tell me everything!”

Sara was already halfway out the door of the escape pod before she rounded on Peebee, “sorry, gotta go. You said it yourself! Bye!” and she bolted from the bridge and down the hallway.

“Oi! OI! I’ll get you!” she heard Peebee calling after her and she chuckled as she made it to the other side, grateful she had avoided Peebee’s probing – for now.

xXx

After discovering that the bits and bobs she needed for her armour were indeed present on the ship, Sara was satisfied. The day had finally caught up with her, and it was well and truly into the night cycle when she made her way to bed.

However, her mind decided it had other ideas and refused to let her sleep.

Usually when she couldn’t sleep she would take a walk outside, but as there was no outside for her to walk through (well there was Kadara but, nope), Sara decided to pace around the small ship to distract her mind.

The ship felt eerie as she made her way through it. For once, she noticed Kallo was not at attention in his chair, and on further inspection Sara caught him sprawled out in the chair fast asleep, his mouth lolling open. Sara had to suppress a giggle as she continued her walkthrough - peering through the windows of the crew quarters as she went and catching Gil asleep on a bunk.  

“Wow, it’s rare for those two to be asleep…let alone at the same time,” Sara mumbled as she walked by. She made her way into the cargo bay and stared around it aimlessly, there wasn’t a single sound aside from the gentle hum of the engine.

As her eyes scanned the cargo bay she spotted the guitar she had played.

“Is anyone awake SAM?” Sara whispered.

“Jaal is speaking to his family in the tech bay, Vetra is going through her emails in the Pathfinder’s quarters and Drack is eating in the gallery.”

“Okay, good,” Sara replied, “thank you.”

Sara pulled the guitar from its little cranny in the ship and strummed the strings gently, humming in satisfaction that it was still in tune. With the song in her mind, she began to sing:

“ _Ain’t nobody hurt you like I hurt you,_  
_But ain’t nobody love you like I do_  
_Promise that I will not take it personal, baaa-by_  
_If you’re moving on with someone new-_ ”

“I remember that,” a voice carried through the empty space and Sara jumped, the guitar making an awful sound as it nearly hit the ground, she caught it just in time by the neck.

Sara looked up to see Jaal standing on the upper level, resting his arms over the railing, “oh – it’s you,” she said, her breathing slowing.

“Did I frighten you?” Jaal asked; his face full of concern as he stepped on the elevator.

“A bit,” Sara chuckled, “it’s okay,” she smiled at him.

“What is that song called?” Jaal asked, taking a seat next to Sara on the boxes. He was very close, his leg just not quite touching hers. Sara could feel the electricity and pull to him.

 “‘ _Happier’_ ,” Sara answered.

“ _Happier_ ,” Jaal repeated, and made a hum in the back of his throat, “is it normal for humans to mix up their emotions-?”

“All the time,” Sara joked, “that’s what we’re best at.”

Jaal laughed, “But, the song sounds sad to me – why is it called ‘Happier’?”

“It’s a sad song, it’s supposed to be. It’s about a girl he loved that has now moved on with another man. He’s singing about that someday he’ll be happier, just as she is…” Sara trailed off, blinking against her suddenly watery eyes.

_Do NOT cry Sara Ryder!_

“It…reminds you of someone,” Jaal stated.

“Of me,” Sara replied honestly, “I always thought of it like me looking at Goya, who has inevitably moved on.”

“Are you happier?”

Sara gazed into Jaal’s eyes, and at once felt comfortable. She wasn’t sure why Jaal’s eyes were soothing, but it had something to do with how _familiar_ they felt, how she saw the oceans and islands of Earth in them.

“I think so,” Sara admitted, “I miss home. But-,” she stopped, thinking of the reapers that had ravaged the Milky Way, “but I have a lot to be thankful for, and be happy for here. Like you for instance,” at this admission Jaal’s eyes widened, “you’ve taken such good care of me here and I really don’t deserve it. I just, wanted to thank you.”

Jaal beamed at her and gently placed a hand on her leg. She didn’t know whether it was Jaal’s bioelectricity or the natural chemistry between them, but the charge she felt from the gentle touch was strong, “Sara…I have told you that you do not need to thank me. You deserve it.”

“I don’t _need_ to thank you,” Sara replied, “but I _want_ to.”

The pair of them gazed into each other’s eyes – Sara’s heart was thumping so loudly that Jaal could probably hear it. It ached in her chest.

In that moment, it was just the two of them. Sara’s breathing quickened as she leant closer to Jaal’s face, the purple mottling on his skin becoming very distinct.

Her eyes closed.  

“What are you kids up to?”

_WHACK_

“Ouch,” Jaal complained, rubbing the back of his head. In his haste to jump backward, he had collided with something heavy and metal.

“If people could stop appearing outta nowhere that’d be nice,” Sara vocalised, clutching at her chest, “I was playing guitar,” she held up the guitar for Drack to see.

“Uh huh,” Drack nodded, and Sara swore she saw a smirk on the old krogan’s face.

“Sara plays beautifully,” Jaal explained, and then turned toward Sara, “I was going to suggest you play for the crew.”

Sara’s heart quickened, “no no, my anxiety would get the best of me I’m afraid. I don’t play for groups – usually just individuals.”

Drack coughed, “I’ll leave you two to it then,” he made his way out of the cargo bay, but not before turning back and giving Sara a small wink. She rolled her eyes at him before he left.

“That was awkward,” Sara chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck. She stifled a huge yawn; it seemed her body was really ready for sleep now, “I should probably head to bed.”

“Me too,” Jaal replied, standing up and extending a mitten-hand. Sara smiled gratefully and placed her hand in his, and he pulled her to her feet using a little too much force as she nearly collided with him.

“I adore spending time with you,” Jaal said simply.

“Same here,” Sara replied, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her face to his chest, “I think you’re my favourite person on this ship,” the words tumbled out of her mouth and she felt her face redden as they replayed in her mind.  

“Mine as well,” Jaal replied, his head resting on hers and his large arms around her shoulders, “but now, I will let you sleep.”

They walked to the crew quarters together, “night,” Sara smiled as she approached the door.

“Sleep dreams!”

“Don’t you mean ‘sweet dreams’?” Sara couldn’t resist a smile from creeping onto her face.

“Yes,” Jaal said, sounding embarrassed, “that.”

“Sleep dreams to you too,” Sara giggled and the doors of the crew quarters snapped shut, leaving her in the quiet room filled with soft snores.

xXx

Sara was busy in the tech bay crafting her armour. She had the schematic sitting propped up against one of Jaal’s belongings and a bunch of raw materials scattered around the room. She was working on the helmet, as that was the piece she needed desperately.

She wished Jaal was with her to help as he was excellent at this sort of thing, but Scott had stolen him away along with Liam and Vetra to go and look for the illusive ‘Charlatan’ character everyone spoke of.

As she fiddled with a delicate piece of the armour that would get the light working, the doors whizzed open to reveal a surly looking Drack.

“Kid – you’re coming with me.”

“Guessing it’s not a request?” Sara asked, placing the helmet down gently.

“Nope. I need to kill something and you need to come,” Drack replied and stormed off, making his way to the armoury. Curious, Sara followed and saw Drack gearing up and grabbing his shotgun.

“There are always a few raiders hanging about the port. Gear up,” Drack ordered, throwing her the Widow Sniper rifle.

“Yes…sir?”

Sara pulled her armour on; sans helmet due to the damage and the fact her new helmet was nowhere near done. Before she and Drack could leave a breathless Peebee stormed into the armoury, “there you are! Hey wait – where are you going?”

“None of your business,” Drack grumbled.

“I’m coming,” Peebee declared, pulling out her sidewinder and rushing up to stand beside Sara eagerly.

Drack sighed, “Fine. Come on.”

The three of them left the ship in an orderly fashion through the airlock door in the armoury rather than the larger exit through the cargo bay and Sara smiled to herself, clearly the krogan hadn’t gotten permission to do this.

“Why me Drack?” Sara asked curiously, checking the clips of her armour.

“Felt like company, plus…”

“Sara’s the least likely to report you to Lexi, right?” Peebee answered for him.

“That too,” Drack nodded.

“Oooh I do enjoy being bad,” Peebee rubbed her hands together as the three of them made their way through the slums and using their jet-packs to propel themselves over the fence rather than having to talk to the surly krogan guard of the Badlands.

It didn’t take long to find a group of raiders standing around with seemingly no objective, Sara pulled her Widow out and using tactical cloak took aim of a raider, blowing his head off in one easy shot. Drack roared, his blood rage activating before storming into the thicket with Peebee following using a combination of tech and biotics to mow enemies down.

“Sara! Behind you!” Peebee called out, and Sara turned as if in slow motion to see an asari raider smiling behind her. Sara propelled back using the jet-pack and then quickly adjusting the setting on her omni-tool, held out her hand where a torrent of flames burst directly at the asari. Sara moved forward with the flames as the asari tried desperately to get out of the line of fire.

The flames flickered and died leaving the asari writhing on the ground. Sara flicked another switch and pulled her arm back, allowing the omni-blade to emerge and with one swift movement it pierced the asari’s throat.

“Well done,” Drack complimented, “I see why Scott wanted you in active combat.”

“Thanks,” Sara replied, smiling at the krogan’s approval.

“Reckon it’ll be long before we see a dropship?” Peebee asked, staring at the sky as if trying to summon one. The three of them continued to walk, trying to find some more enemies to shoot – whether it be remnant, kett or raiders.

“So…the kid?” Drack asked absent-mindedly as they moved.

“Which kid? You call everyone kid?” Sara asked, feeling her heartbeat quicken in her chest. She knew exactly what kid he was talking about.

“Jaal,” Drack stated. _Oh boy. Definitely that kid._

“Ooooh that’s EXACTLY what I wanted to ask you about!” Peebee bounced excitedly.

“What about Jaal?” Sara asked in a very unconvincing act of nonchalance.

“Don’t think we don’t notice,” Drack snorted, “he’s just as bad as a love struck krogan. I should know, been watching Vorn with Kesh.”

“A lot less violent than a love struck krogan though,” Peebee commented idly.

“Vorn is not violent – if he was he wouldn’t be breathing right now,” Drack countered, then turned back to Sara, “Plus, I saw you two in the cargo bay.”

Peebee spluttered, “Wait, WHAT?”

“We weren’t doing anything in the cargo bay! He caught me playing guitar and then we talked for a bit.”

“’Talked?’ Hmph, so ‘talking’ for humans is ‘about to kiss’? I’ll have to remember that one.”

This time it was Sara’s turn to splutter while Peebee was so excited she activated her jet-pack and launched 5 metres into the air.

“WHAT?” Peebee shouted as she came crashing down, “YOU HID THIS FROM ME OLD MAN!”

“I’m not here to repeat the kid’s business,” Drack stated simply.

“But, but,” Peebee replied, “aww man!”

“Earth to everyone we didn’t actually kiss! Yikes!” Sara added to the conversation, feeling suddenly grumpy.

“But you like him, right?” Peebee asked eagerly, she was bouncing with excitement.

“And why exactly is it anyone’s business about how I feel about anyone?” Sara snapped directing it to Drack, but had been a lot blunter then she had intended.

A gunshot whizzed past Sara’s left ear.

“Not here to turn you off of it by any means,” Drack said, cocking his gun and pointing it at an incoming new group of enemies. Sara pulled the carnifex from her thigh that she kept for emergencies and switched her omni-tool to activate her snap-freeze while Peebee grabbed the enemies in a pull.

“I’m here to make sure you don’t get hurt,” Drack continued as he punched enemies’ skulls in and bashed them with his enormous head.

“Exactly! I support you in whatever decision you make…naturally,” Peebee added, darting forward and landing shots from her gun before switching back to biotics. 

“Right,” Sara replied, letting her flamethrower do the work to take out the last few enemies, “any reason we’re having this conversation in active combat?”

“Because I needed to kill things,” Drack answered, “and it’s distracting. Think of it as…krogan therapy.”

“Your therapy involves you killing things?”

Drack gave her a look as he stepped on an angara’s head, “obviously,” he grumbled, “I’m a krogan.”

“You like him, right?” Peebee repeated, stowing her gun away once the last enemy in the immediate vicinity had fallen, “I mean surely you wouldn’t be about to kiss him if you didn’t.”

Sara didn’t speak for a moment, running it all through her mind, “I…” she struggled to say the words aloud. Talks like this in the Milky Way had always been with Scott. In fact, Scott had been the first person to know about Goya before she had had the courage to tell their parents.

They always knew everything that was happening in each other’s lives. But not anymore.

Sara frowned when she remembered Scott not including her in important briefings despite being the successor to his job, losing his temper with her panic and ordering her around without taking anything into consideration. Andromeda had changed him. No, it was time for Sara to have an upper hand, to have something Scott didn’t know about.

“Yeah,” Sara gulped, “I like him.”

She couldn’t believe she had admitted it, and to the two most unlikely crew members – a 1400 year old battle-hardened krogan and an independent asari who took absolutely no shit.

Not the people she had imagined telling anyway.

Drack grunted in response while Peebee let out a gleeful squeal.

“Now what though?” Sara shrugged, “I like him, doesn’t mean he likes me.”

At this statement Peebee cackled, “c’mon Ryder! You can’t be that stupid! It’s clear Jaal _lurrrves_ you!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sara casually dismissed. 

“It’s up to you kid on what you want,” Drack explained, ripping the teeth out of a dead Adhi and attaching it to his armour while Sara watched with a disgusted look on her face, “want one?”

“Yeah, sure,” Sara shrugged and he threw her one of the Adhi’s canine teeth. She put it in a compartment on her armour for now while she figured out what to do with it.

“We’re here for ya,” Peebee smiled, wrapping an arm around Sara’s waist.

“Can you guys promise me one thing?” Sara asked hesitantly, “please don’t tell Scott or Jaal…or anyone else.”

“Sure kid,” Drack nodded and then stared at Peebee, “that includes you Peebee, no spreading info.”

“Awww,” Peebee groaned, “fiiiine.”

The three of them headed back to the Tempest, and Sara once again had a hot shower in mind after the active combat. Thankfully Scott had not returned as of yet, much to Sara’s pleasure. She didn’t want to hear the lecture she’d get about she and Drack being in active combat – especially since it had been Drack’s idea. They snuck through the airlock anyway and thankfully Lexi wasn’t waiting for them on the other side either.

After showering, Sara found herself in the cargo bay twirling the Adhi tooth through her hands, still figuring out what to do with it when Scott, Liam, Vetra and Jaal entered the cargo bay looking thoroughly worn-out, especially Jaal who looked ready to punch something.

“Welcome back,” Sara called out to them, and Jaal’s sour expression considerably lightened when his eyes found hers, “find anything?”

“Nope,” Liam groaned.

“Better luck next time then?” Cora asked.

“Hopefully, but not in the near future anyway. I have my orders – the next planet we’re headed to is Havarl. I’ll fill you all in once we’re there. We leave in 30,” Scott stated.

“I must inform my true mother right away!” Jaal called out, his eyes were filled with excitement.

“Whoa, whoa,” Scott replied, “hold your horses!”

“What is a horse?” Jaal asked.

“Not sure how long we’ll be there for; there may not be time for personal endeavours. I’ll find out more when we get there.”

“Right,” Jaal said, his tone shifting dramatically. Scott nodded at the crew and left the cargo bay without a backward glance. Sara looked around awkwardly, the rest of the crew seemed restless at Jaal and Scott’s quick exchange but eventually they all went their separate ways for the night. 

Sara found herself excited at the prospect of visiting a world that wasn’t a barren desert. As much as she liked desert because it reminded her of Mars, the idea of a jungle world was very pleasing at the present moment.

Plus she was eager to see Jaal’s homeworld.

She couldn’t even lie to herself upon realising that was 90% of the reason she wanted to go there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was surprisingly easy to write - I had a little difficulty getting the scenes in an order I was happy with but overall I like it. Grandpa Drack is the best, and I always found once Peebee was comfortable she'd just be everyone's best gal friend. Peebee is honestly like a little sister I never had I just love her. 
> 
> Also about Sara singing 'Happier'. I know Mass Effect is set so far in the future (with Scott and Sara growing up in the 2160's and 2170's) but I just want something relatable hence why I'm using music from now. I think I've already explained Sara loves 2000's and 2010's music because her father absolutely hated it calling it 'the worst period of human music'. Sara's a rebel remember? :P 
> 
> Cheers for the kudos, views, comments, subscriptions! Honestly I love all of you and thank you so so much for reading!


	12. Disrespect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott struggles with the workload, his crew and personal relationships

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have I actually collectively apologised for the time between chapters? I'm so sorry. Honestly, this year just sucks and for a long time I just didn't feel like writing. But, I've found the groove again. Enjoy

**SCOTT**

Scott retreated to the safety of his room where he flopped onto his bed, still fully armoured.

“SAM? Can you lock my door to everyone?”

“Yes, Pathfinder.”

“Thank you.”

Scott sighed, running his fingers through his hair and sitting up, frowning when he noticed he had left a huge dirty imprint on his bed. Growling under his breath he pulled the armour pieces off and lobbed them into the corner.

He pulled the email up from Tann that he had received while looking for Reyes on Kadara and read through it again.

 _From: Tann, J._  
To: Ryder, S.  
Cc: Addison, F. Kandros, T. Kesh, N.

_Pathfinder,_

_We’ve received reports that there have been sightings of those strange kett hybrids on Havarl. We would like you to investigate this. Please divert from your task as soon as possible and report to Havarl immediately._

_After that I’d like you to report to the Nexus for an important meeting with the other advisors._

_Sincerely,_

**_Director Jarun Tann_**  
Andromeda Initiative Director  
The Nexus, Heleus Cluster  
Andromeda Galaxy

He sighed bitterly. He pulled up the latest report from Havarl and gave it a quick scan-over.

_‘Business as usual’ reported on Havarl. Flora and fauna are reporting rapid return to normal state since Meridian’s activation. Remnant numbers remain steady, Roekaar numbers increasing as was predicted from the death of their leader, Akksul._

Scott grit his teeth. As much as Jaal had berated him for shooting Akksul, Scott knew he had made the correct decision. He could still remember the argument in perfect detail.

_Jaal had stormed into his quarters while Scott had been going over finances of the Tempest, in particular why the food bill was so high – even with a krogan on board it shouldn’t be costing 10,000 credits a week._

_“Why did you do it?” Jaal had snapped at him._

_“What else did you expect me to do?” Scott demanded._

_“To trust me!” Jaal snapped. The huge angara paced in front of him, his hands curled into fists and his teeth bared._

_“I’m sorry, but I can’t exactly trust your judgement when he had a ushior in your face. A ushior Jaal!” Scott stated; if anything the statement seemed to make Jaal angrier._

_“I’m sick of this! I’m sick of you just disregarding my feelings on important matters like this! To my people! To me!” Jaal breathed heavily as if he had run a marathon._

_“Jaal, I don’t have time for people’s emotions. I’m the human Pathfinder. I have 20,000 human lives on my shoulders, plus the other 80,000 members of the Initiative. I have to take the most logical approach to things. In that moment, Akksul had a loaded weapon pointed at your face, I had absolutely no choice. What would you have done?”_

_“I would’ve_ trusted _,” the last word was a snarl._

_“You would’ve let your superior officer be shot in the face?”_

_“Yes…no…I don’t know!”_

_“Could you imagine me going to Evfra and having to explain how his best lieutenant died? Evfra would mount my head on the wall right next to the remains of yours.”_

Jaal had then snarled at him and stormed out of his room, and hadn’t been in it since. In truth, Scott couldn’t remember the last time he had had a conversation with the angara one-on-one.

Regardless, the planet was fine. The kett reports had been troubling however – the most sightings were on Kadara with a handful on Eos and Voeld as well. Havarl had never had a particularly strong kett presence, so he was intrigued and annoyed. There had also been none sighted on Elaaden which surprised him – but the planet seemed like a cesspool even to the kett.

And that meeting! Scott racked his brains trying to think of what he had done but came up with nothing. Aside from Sara and Jaal getting stuck inside of a cave, nothing disastrous had happened. He sighed bitterly and opened the email from Tann on his terminal and hit ‘reply’.

The empty screen taunted him.

‘Pathfinder’ SAM said in his head, pulling him from his thoughts, ‘Vetra is requesting entry into your cabin’

“Access denied,” Scott replied, chewing on his lip as he tried to respond to Tann’s email. He began to type.

‘She is insistent’

“Access denied,” Scott repeated sternly. His typing became a little more fierce and exaggerated.

‘Pathfinder – I fear she may break down the door’

“Fine,” Scott stated.

Vetra barged her way into the cabin, opening the doors by force rather than waiting for them to open automatically. Scott swivelled in his chair to look at her. She had taken her visor off and her overall demeanour seemed off, “yes?” Scott asked.

“Yes?” Vetra repeated incredulously.

“What do you want, exactly?” Scott asked, his anger getting the better of him.

“What’s with you today?” Vetra asked, her stance softening ever so slightly, but her arms remained crossed tightly over her chest.

“What do you think?” Scott snapped, unable to contain it and leaping to his feet, “everyone wants a fucking favour! You can’t listen to SAM when he says you’re not welcome in here right now? Really? Just…,” he grabbed fistfuls of his hair and turned away from her.  

He heard the whoosh of the door, and turned to see that Vetra had gone. The room was very still, and the only sound Scott could hear was the gentle hum of the engine and his space-hamster running on its wheel.

He immediately regretted his outburst with Vetra, and felt the guilt settling in his gut. He shrugged it off and sat back down in his swivel chair. This whole mess wasn’t Vetra’s fault. None of it was.

Scott finished the email, and read it over again.

 _From: Ryder, S._  
To: Tann, J.  
Cc: Addison, F. Kandros, T. Kesh, N.

_Director Tann,_

_Directive is noted and the Tempest is on course for Havarl now._

_Regarding your second point – is it possible to have the meeting over vid-con?_

_Regards,_

**_Scott Ryder  
_ ** _Human Pathfinder_

He hummed in approval and hit the send button, only a few minutes had passed before Tann had sent an email back.

_From: Tann, J.  
To: Ryder, S._

_Pathfinder,_

_I would prefer that you were present for the meeting. It would be inconvenient over com – report to the Nexus as soon as your latest assignment on Havarl has concluded._

**_Director Tann_**  
Andromeda Initiative Director  
The Nexus, Heleus Cluster  
Andromeda Galaxy

Scott sighed and stood up, he needed to hit something.

xXx

“Are you okay?”

Scott turned to see Gil leaning easily against the Nomad.

“Nope,” Scott replied, punching the bag again.

“Do you want to talk about it?” even Gil sounded awkward as he said it.

“Fuck no,” Scott stated, taking another swing.

“Do you want to play poker with Liam and I?”

Scott stopped hitting the bag and rubbed his bleeding knuckles, “sure.” He followed Gil to Liam’s room where Liam handed him a beer and the three of them gathered around the small table.

“Trouble?” Liam asked.

“You know it,” Scott ran his fingers through his hair, “but thinking about it won’t help me. Let’s poker this shit up.”

After a few rounds of non-competitive play (Gil however was still wiping the floor with them), Scott felt some of the tension leave his body.

“Have you seen Peebee lately?” Liam asked conversationally as he picked up a card.

“Yes, I have,” Scott replied and folded, “that bet is coming along well, eh?” he cocked an eyebrow.

At this Liam sighed, “I won’t concede defeat just yet! But, I will admit, I _think_ you’re right. Peebee and Sara seemed joined at the hip lately.”

“Was I right, or was I right?” Scott grinned.

“I wouldn’t get comfortable yet,” Gil inputted.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, nothing at all,” Gil replied smugly.

“Surely you can’t think that Sara would date _Jaal_ ,” Scott made a disgusted face, “ergh.”

“Just because you think he’s _ergh_ doesn’t mean we all do,” Gil snapped.

“Wait, Brodie, you’re not telling me you have the hots for Jaal?” Liam asked. Scott nearly dropped his hand of cards and looked at Gil curiously.

“I mean…” Gil’s face went a little pink, “he’s not bad y’know.”

“Oh my god,” Scott rubbed his face in his free hand.

“Damn!” Liam laughed, “you should go for it.”

“No! Firstly I have no idea if he bats for the other team and secondly, why would I self-sabotage like that?”

“You’re still on Brodie,” Scott replied, “it’s going to be Peebee.”  

“Hey – I still think Suvi’s a shoo-in for sure.”

“Keep dreaming Kosta,” Liam and Gil said together.

Scott couldn’t muster competitive play today, so the three parted will full pockets. He really didn’t understand how Gil was so good at poker – maybe he was using some sort of cheating software.

‘He is not’ SAM stated.

Scott rolled his eyes, and then looked back on Vetra’s door and noted the lock was engaged, and sighed. He needed to make things right with her.

 _How do I find something for Vetra, when she’s the one that finds everything?_ Scott asked himself.

‘I recommend checking in with Peebee, Pathfinder,’ SAM explained, ‘she may have something that interests you’.

“Okay?” Scott asked aloud before climbing the stairs and heading toward the escape pod and knocking on the door.

“Come innnn!” a sing-song voice called to him and Scott stepped into the messy area. He wondered how on earth he was going to get the crew in here to escape if they so needed, but neither Kallo or SAM had bought this to his attention.

“Scotty! What brings you to my quarters this fine evening?”

Scott repressed a scowl, between Drack calling him ‘kid’ and Peebee’s new nickname of ‘Scotty’ he was never going to cop a break.

“Peebee – I uh…have a favour to ask,” Scott stated, running his fingers through his hair and pacing.

“Trouble in paradise hmm? What can I do to help ya?”

Scott was taken aback, who knew how Peebee knew, “Yeah. I was wondering if you’d have anything that’d interest Vetra?”

“I dooooo actually,” Peebee winked, “but!”

“But?” Scott cocked an eyebrow.

“I’d like to go exploring on Havarl.”

“A favour for a favour?” Scott sighed irritably and rubbed his temples in frustration, “sure…fine.”

“Yes!” Peebee chirped excitedly, she rummaged through her belongings and retrieved a bottle of wine and handed it to him.

“Dextro?” Scott asked before SAM translated the foreign symbols that were printed onto the bottle, “ah yes! Thank you Peebee.”

“My pleasure!” Peebee smiled at him and he left wondering what had just happened.

xXx

Scott had showered, changed into his best casual clothes and even shaved his facial hair. He rubbed at his clean shaven face and grimaced, he hated having the clean shaven look because it took him so long to regrow even the 5 o’clock shadow. But, he wanted to impress her and she’d joked she would like to see him clean shaven.

He grabbed the wine bottle and set off for Vetra’s quarters, where the lock was still engaged. He took a deep breath before knocking on the door.

Nothing.

“Vetra?” Scott called gently, “I know you’re in there.”

There was no response. The door remained engaged. Scott knew he could get SAM to override it and he could barge in – but doing that wouldn’t do him any favours.

“Vetra,” he called again, “I…” he trailed off. 

Still nothing.

“Fine!” he shouted, storming off from her door and barging into his cabin. He grit his teeth and before he could stop himself the blue light engulfed his arm and he threw the wine at his wall with as much force as he could muster.

He regretted it when the wine bottle was halfway to the wall, flinching as the bottle made a sickening smash and wine and glass sprayed everywhere.

“Fucking hell!” Scott cried as he kicked the desk and groaned when his toe stung in response. He hated feeling like this. He didn’t want to think about it – it was enough to drive him insane.

He needed rest; he would sleep the rest of the journey to Havarl.

xXx

 

‘Pathfinder.’

Scott snapped to attention at once, immediately sitting up in bed and rubbing at his face, “yes, SAM?”

“We have landed on Havarl.”

“Excellent – please alert Jaal that he will be joining me on the ground team today.”

“Error – unable to process request. Jaal is currently uncontactable.”

“ _What_?” Scott asked, “where is he?”

“Unknown,” SAM replied, “he disconnected his comms before disappearing an hour ago.”

Scott groaned, “He could be anywhere. Has anyone else mysteriously vanished?”

“Peebee has gone to explore vaults; her comms are still engaged.”

“It’s fine,” Scott replied, getting out of bed and rubbing at his clean-shaven face, “I allowed her that. I didn’t want to go on Havarl without an angara, _shit_.”

“I recall you on Havarl on numerous occasions without Jaal’s presence,” SAM countered.

“That was when the Roekaar weren’t as active,” Scott argued, “I feel like I need an angaran presence to help with even local non-Roekaar to stop seeing me as a threat. Ergh, this is a disaster.”

“Orders?”

“Business as usual,” Scott answered, “I need a coffee.”

Once he had a coffee in hand, Scott didn’t know what to do. He was standing awkwardly in the gallery with Lexi and didn’t feel like a consult, so decided to go to the place that had comforted him in the days of the Archon.

He felt his feet carrying him to the Galaxy Map.

He heard Suvi’s accent and Sara’s voice flowing through the doors once they opened. The pair were discussing religion. He noted Kallo was steering the ship as usual, “Ryder” he said automatically, and Scott replied with a stiff “Kallo”.

“But…I mean, I respect your belief I just don’t share it,” Sara explained, and Scott turned to look at her. She was sitting easily over near Suvi, coffee in hand and her legs dangling awkwardly on the half-wall that separated Suvi’s workspace from the rest of the bridge.

“Yeh don’t have to Sara,” Suvi replied, “I’m just glad yeh respect it is all. So many have told me my beliefs aren’t worth respecting, which is unfair as I respect theirs.”

“It’s interesting how you blend science and religion and make it work for you,” Sara admitted, “I like it.”

“I’m not alone with it, yeh brother and I used to have a once-a-week read-through of religious texts, didn’t we Sc-?” but she stopped when she looked at him, and the pause caused Sara to turn too.

“WHOA!” Sara said excitedly, “you shaved your face! Holy _shit_ Peebee is going to die!”

“Is it that noticeable?” Scott asked nonchalantly.

“Wow!” Sara said, getting up and touching his face, “I haven’t seen it that smooth since you were twenty.”

“Shut up, Sara!” Scott joked.

“Hey, it’s true!” she argued and sat back down next to Suvi.

“It really suits yeh,” Suvi claimed.

“Thanks,” Scott replied, feeling his face with a bit less loathing, “and I do remember our read-throughs of religious texts.”

“Yes! I miss them,” Suvi sighed.

“Remember we used to drink your tea?”

“I ran out!” Suvi sighed, the light in her eyes faltering, “the other day.”

Scott gasped, “no! What! That was the best tea. Here’s to one less thing from Earth.” Silence fell between them, and he stared back at the map with the holographic planets.

“Does ‘once-a-week read-through of religious texts’ mean what I think it does?” Sara asked curiously.

Scott and Suvi locked eyes before Suvi burst into laughter and Scott cracked a grin, “no, no,” she laughed, “he’s not my type anyway.”

“Can’t forgive me for trying that one time,” Scott grinned despite himself.

“It was pretty pathetic,” Suvi laughed, “firstly, yeh had googly eyes for Vetra anyway. Secondly, yeh’re not womanly enough for me!”

“Oh,” Sara started, and then the realisation hit her, “ _ohhhhhh_.”

“Do we have to have this conversation on the bridge?” Kallo almost begged, “really?”

“Yes. Kallo, it’s essential we discuss our love lives on the bridge,” Sara declared sarcastically and Suvi laughed along, much to Kallo’s disgust.  

Scott continued to grin, he was glad he had come up to the bridge. Seeing Sara act normally with Suvi and Kallo, almost playfully, lightened him. He knew that she would never be the same, hell, he’d never be the same either – but any semblance of normal eased him, much more than the Galaxy Map was at the present moment.

“Alright, duty calls,” Scott stated, draining his coffee cup and smiling at his sister and Suvi.

“Have fun,” Sara replied, smiling back at him.

For a brief moment, he considered it.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Scotty, the guy is struggling. I really felt like I needed to put people in his head a bit more to show why he's the way he is. As much as he puts on a show, he really struggles with the pathfinder gig deep down.
> 
> Also the clean-shaven face! God I so desperately wanted to give Scott a shave! I remember watching a Scott/Jaal vid and the player had modded Scott's face to be clean shaven and honestly he was so handsome. Uh, from this point forward Scott is clean-shaven until mentioned otherwise :)


	13. Ambush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara is overwhelmed by her brother and Jaal, and goes on a mission on Havarl.

“Thanks for the chat Suv,” Sara said, swallowing the dregs of coffee and wincing against the bitterness, “let’s do this again sometime.”

“Sure,” Suvi replied, smiling. Sara stood from her awkward position and stretched her legs. She rubbed at her aching head and hoped that the headache was just from a lack of caffeine.

She had more armour to configure but wasn’t really in the mood to do so without Jaal. He had given her a hurried goodbye as he had practically run from the ship earlier, saying something along the lines of ‘visiting loved ones’.

Sara assumed he had told everyone about this, so she hadn’t bothered to mention it to anyone else. She slid easily down the ladder before nearly dropping her mug in shock from the sudden yells coming through from the cargo bay.

Cora poked her head out from the bathroom, one towel wrapped around her torso and another around her hair, “what is going on?”

“I’ll find out,” Sara said, and half jogged to the cargo bay.

Once the doors opened the sound amplified and the voices were unmistakable.

“WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING?”

Scott’s face was inches from Jaal’s. He was shouting himself hoarse, his face as red as a tomato. Jaal looked down at Scott in what looked like genuine disbelief, but Sara could see the lines of displeasure on his face.

“Visiting my true mother and family,” Jaal replied stiffly.

“YOU DON’T TURN OFF YOUR COMMS!”

“I didn’t want to be disturbed,” Jaal stated.

“REGARDLESS, YOU DON’T EVER TURN OFF YOUR COMMS! I NEED TO KNOW WHERE YOU ARE, SO YOU’RE SAFE UNDER MY COMMAND!”

Sara couldn’t recall ever seeing Scott lose control like this before, and was proud of Jaal for keeping it together considering he was usually the more emotional of the two. But, just as Sara thought it, Jaal’s emotions were starting to get the better of him.

“You said I couldn’t visit my family!” Jaal snapped, pulling himself higher, “I had to see them before you banned me from doing so.”

“Jaal, the mission - ,” Scott started, but Jaal cut across him.

“Fuck off,” Jaal growled, the words caught Sara off-guard and even Scott faltered, “The mission was never a priority when we were at the Nexus. Every time we boarded, the mission waited while you visited Sara!”

Scott opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Both he and Jaal turned to Sara, who could feel the colour rise to her cheeks.

“Is that true?” Sara asked her brother, this time it was she that was feeling the genuine disbelief.

“Yes, it’s true,” Scott said in a small voice, and immediately a rush of gratitude filled Sara’s chest. She had no idea Scott would put everything on hold for her. In that moment, she felt very loved.

“Don’t tell me the mission is more important than family,” Jaal pulled Sara from her thoughts as he spoke, “because I know it’s a lie.”

Scott’s temple pulsed and he paced in front of Jaal, seemingly unable to form a thought. Sara noted that Vetra’s door was open and the turian had emerged, she looked from Jaal to Scott uncomfortably.

“Scott?”

He turned so fast to face her that Sara was sure he was going to fall over.

“You shaved your face?”

Scott sighed, “Not a good time.”

“It’s a bit hard not to notice – can we have a word?”

“Now?”

“Now.”

Scott sighed and to Sara’s amazement, followed Vetra into her quarters without another word and they shut the door behind them. Sara stood blankly in the cargo bay for a moment before Jaal stormed out without acknowledging anyone and the crowd that had gathered eyed each other in confusion.

“What on earth happened?” Cora asked as she made her way into the cargo bay, now fully dressed but still with a towel on her head.

“Jaal and my brother decided to have a massive fight for us all to see,” Sara explained.

“What about?”

“Apparently Jaal snuck away to visit his family against Scott’s wishes, didn’t tell anyone and switched off his comms,” Liam explained from the landing above. Sara’s insides squirmed uncomfortably, she knew he had gone.

_But,_ her inner voice argued, _no one asked._

“ _What?_ ” Cora asked incredulously, “I understand why he’s so angry.”

“But I get the family thing too,” Gil explained, “I mean…if I were a Milky Way alien on a spaceship with a bunch of guys from Andromeda and they didn’t let me see family I hadn’t seen in months…well. I can imagine he’s probably missing other angara. They aren’t used to multicultural society like we are.”

“But he disobeyed an order, and switched off his comms! What if something had happened to him?” Lexi argued, lounging awkwardly against the doorframe.

“To be fair -,” Drack joined the conversation, “it was never an order.”

“That’s…true,” Lexi replied. The crew fell into an uneasy silence.

It was that moment that Peebee trudged up the ramp, her face damp and muddy and with a bundle of remnant machinery under her arm. She looked around expectantly, “hey guys – what did I miss?”

xXx

Sara was in the crew quarters flipping through the pages of a tattered book and trying to occupy her time when Scott came in, he had his under-armour on and was putting his hair back into its usual swept style.

“Hey, what’s up?” Sara asked, closing the book. She hadn’t seen her brother in about a day. Scott had emerged from Vetra’s room red-eyed and ashen faced and had kept mostly to himself since.

“Mission – need you to come along, covering all my bases. I need a sniper and…well.”

“Understood, I’ll be in the cargo bay in 10,” Sara said to him and made her way up the ladder and into the armoury where she met Peebee and Liam gearing up. Sara nodded to the pair of them and pulled the standard initiative armour on, frowning when she realised she hadn’t been able to work on hers. Jaal had locked himself in the tech bay and was refusing to talk to anybody. Sara had tried numerous times to go in, but he had denied her entry.

She groaned under her breath as she adjusted the clips, placed her Widow on her back and walked with Peebee and Liam to the cargo bay where Scott was waiting and they followed him onto the planet. Sara’s armoured boots squelched in the mud as she took her first step onto Havarl and breathed in the air before placing her helmet on.

“Whoa,” Sara whispered as they ventured forward and she held one of the leaves in her hands, the gentle blue hum soothed her very soul, “I’ve never seen bioluminescence before…”

“The planet is looking great!” Liam said as he came up next to Sara and looked at the same plant she was staring at.

“I like that we can walk through and not be attacked by some mutated animal,” Peebee added.

“I concur,” Scott nodded in agreement.

“So Havarl had issues didn’t it? It was different to other worlds, right?” Sara asked.

“It did,” Scott explained, “one of Havarl’s vaults was inactive while the other two were working normally resulting in extreme growth patterns in both flora and fauna. It was almost as if they were rabid.”

“And they were huge!” Peebee continued, “much bigger than the normal wildlife.”

They fell silent, the only steps the gentle sounds of nature and their footsteps. Sara let out a big breath of air and scratched at her armour, she had underestimated the humidity of the planet and felt sweat gathering already.

“Ergh,” Sara whispered, holding a hand to her head. She had forgotten to take pain medication to prevent a headache, and much to her displeasure one had formed.

“All good?” Liam asked, turning back to look at her. She couldn’t see his expression through his helmet.

“Yeah,” Sara replied softly, shaking her head slightly to try and will the headache away.

“Ah. Here’s our contact,” Scott interrupted. They approached a moss-green coloured angara with the most striking green eyes which perfectly matched his environment. Sara couldn’t take her eyes off of his.

“Pathfinder, I’m Divril De Shof. I’m one of the head biologists of this region monitoring the growth and steady incline of flora and fauna,” he said in a deep, soothing voice.

Sara noted that he looked slightly uncomfortable at the sight of aliens. Sara knew that the Initiative had a presence on Havarl but she thought how uncomfortable she would’ve been facing four armed aliens with nothing more than a datapad.

“Pleasure. My bosses tell me you were the one to report sightings of the kett?”

“Yes, two klicks west from here. I was studying some of the flora when I was spotted by two…kett…creatures I’d guess I’d call them. One of them was very reptilian in appearance and looked as though it was covered in slime and the other was very pale and looked mechanical at first.”

Sara caught Peebee’s eye and felt the bile rise in her throat at the news that there was more of them.

“I see,” Scott said simply. It was only because she knew her brother so well that Sara picked up on the apprehension in his voice “was there anything else you noticed?”

“No…” Divril replied.

“How did you get away?” Liam asked suddenly.

“I ducked down below the foliage,” Divril explained, “and slowly moved away from them. I remember one of them hurrying forward for me and I broke into a run – but thankfully most of their shots missed. One got me here,” he showed them a spot on his arm that looked as though his clothing had been singed, “it helps I’m the same colour as the plants.”

“Definitely,” Scott replied seriously, “right well, we’re going to check it out. Thank you.”

Divril nodded at them before they left him behind. Sara turned back and noted the angara had what looked like a sour expression crossed with fear. She pulled her Widow from her back and got the gun ready in case of an ambush.

“Sara,” Scott said, “I want you to go with Peebee and follow on the higher ground – up there,” he pointed to a set of rocks poking out of the elevated earth, “use your jetpacks. Liam and I will take the lower route as we’re the close range fighters.”

“Understood,” Sara replied and she and Peebee made their way to higher ground. When out of earshot, Peebee muted her comm to communicate only with Sara.

“How’s Jaal after the fight?” Peebee asked in a low voice.

Sara took a few seconds to reply, “I don’t know. He hasn’t spoken to me.”

“He hasn’t?”

“No.”

“Hmm, worrying,” Peebee continued, “I would’ve thought you’d be the first person he would’ve spoken to.”

“I thought that too…I guess that was arrogant of me.”

They continued in silence for a while, Sara having a firm grip on the Widow while scanning the surrounding environment for any signs of movement. So far it had just been animals including a group of adhi below that were lumbering past.  

“Maybe he’s fed up with me,” Sara wondered aloud.

“Who, Jaal or Scott?”

“Probably both – but in this context, Jaal. After all, I am Scott’s sister. We share DNA.”

“You’re his _twin_ technically, isn’t that like more meaningful in humans?” Peebee asked.

“It is, yeah. Maybe some part of Jaal thinks my brother and I are one in the same. Maybe his obvious hatred of Scott influences how he feels about me.”

“Or maybe he just needs space? He is an angara after all – who knows how they do anything,” Peebee snorted.

“That’s my point! I-,” but Sara stopped dead as they reached the edge of the outcrop and were overlooking a field. Sara held up a fist and Peebee stopped immediately. Pulling out her Widow, Sara jammed her eye to the scope and looked on the scene below her.

True to Divril’s word, there were quarian-kett and drell-kett here. She couldn’t count how many there were from this distance especially since the helmet had no night vison, but it was more than a dozen. Sara scanned through the valley in which Scott was making his way through, and noted behind him that several more kett were tailing him.

“There’s Chosen too,” Sara whispered, “garden variety kett. Scott!” she called into the comm.

“Sara? Do you have our position?”

“There’s Chosen behind you, it’s an ambush! Watch your back!” Sara took aim at one of the Chosen tailing her brother and Liam, and steadied her breathing squeezing the trigger while exhaling. The shot snapped through the jungle but she missed.

“Damn this helmet!” Sara roared, taking it off and breathing in relief that she had an easier line of sight into her scope with her unhindered eye.

Chaos reigned as the bunch of kett snapped to attention and started wildly firing into the valley.

“Take cover!” Peebee cried as she jumped down from where she and Sara were hidden and sent out a powerful shockwave knocking several of them to their feet.

Sara meanwhile was popping the heads of the kett that were behind, her lip twitching upward as she knocked them off one by one, quickly reloading the Widow after each shot and lining them up with her breathing. She found it hard to concentrate with the gunfire and biotics and her headache had a firm grip on her head.

“At my 12 o’clock!” Scott called into the comm and Sara turned her gun and began to take out the ones that were in the thick of fire, careful to avoid the blue and orange blurs that were Scott and Liam respectively.

“Shurid hesh!” a crackly voice came from behind her and Sara turned rapidly, coming face to face with a Chosen which was pointing a gun at her heart.

Sara’s insides froze, the breath leaving her body. She stared into its soulless eyes as it advanced on her, gun raised.

_Stupid stupid I got ambushed!_

She also eyed her helmet lying just over a metre away from her.

_Extra stupid Sara!_

“Sara? Come in! Sara?” Scott was calling over the comms.

“Shurid hesh!” it repeated, louder this time and Sara was still frozen, not understanding it and not knowing what to do. In a split second decision, she raised her hand and shot a barrage of flames at it, which turned out to be the exact wrong thing to do.

In those precious seconds, a shot from far away hit Sara in the back. She staggered, and the alarm in her suit told her that her shields were down.

It was this moment that the Chosen fired its gun directly into her chest.

“SARA!”

She didn’t know who had shouted, she didn’t know what had happened. All she knew was that she was falling down, down, down until ear-splitting agony crossed her skull.

Her bladder released as the world became dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like this chapter! It flowed well, however some scenes got chopped and changed and moved but I think it'll work better this way. 
> 
> Sara can't cop a break, can she? The poor darling, I just want to give her a hug. 
> 
> Also that angara with the green eyes that hangs out in the cultural centre after the patch? I loved him, and he had the most beautiful green eyes which were so unique compared to every other angara ever. So, Divril's eyes are based on his.


	14. Abandonment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sara's down in the dumps and the people she loves dearest aren't exactly being helpful

“Why on Thessia did she take her helmet off?”

“I have no idea! Why weren’t you with her?”

“I’m not long range! Why are you blaming me?”

“I don’t know! I just want someone to blame for this mess!”  

“Stop arguing – you’re going to wake her up!”

Muddy voices caused Sara to open her eyes to the familiar shape of the med-bay.

“Where-?” she felt her voice slice through her throat.

Havarl. Kett. Scott.

“Sara!” a voice called out softly and a blue shape came into her blurry vision. She recognised it as an asari but couldn’t tell if it was Peebee or Lexi.

“What-?” Sara asked to the air as she tried to sit up, grasping at her head which felt as though it had shrapnel stuck in it. She felt the thick bandage around her skull. Her chest ached as though a krogan had headbutted her. Sara’s vision began to swim back into focus and the black marking over the asari’s eyes betrayed her as Peebee. Her face was full of concern and she had a gentle hand on Sara’s arm.

“Shh, take it easy,” Lexi’s soft voice sounded around the room followed by the asari herself who came up on her other side and pushed Sara back onto the mattress, but fiddling with the settings of the cot to allow Sara to sit up, “can you tell me your full name and date of birth please?”

“Sara Leia Ryder,” Sara croaked, “October 12, 2163.” Lexi nodded and inputted information into a datapad. Sara spied Scott standing in the corner of the room, arms folded and his hair completely out of his usual style and spiky. She had to admit, it suited him. He had enormous black bags under his eyes and abrasions over his face.

“What happened?” Sara asked, looking down at the blue and purple bruises tattooing her pale arms. Her armour had been removed and she was naked underneath her hospital gown. A drip was attached to the crook of her arm.

“You were shot at close range in the chest by a Chosen,” Peebee said, her voice shaking slightly, “I thought you had died.”

“You fell about ten metres down a sharp cliff-face,” Lexi added.

“How long was I out?” Sara asked, squinting at the light in the room.  

“About twenty hours,” Lexi replied, “I kept you in an induced coma for most of that time. The shot and subsequent fall was not all that happened.”

“Not all?” Sara asked timidly, the look on Lexi’s face was not comforting.

“You had a seizure.”

“Okay?” Sara asked timidly, not sure where Lexi was going with this.

“When you fell you sustained a head injury because your head went down hard on a rock which halted your fall and knocked you out cold – you also weren’t wearing your helmet. We think this is what caused the seizure.”

Sara stayed silent, waiting for Lexi to continue.

“SAM and I have done some brain scans, and compared them to the ones we did when you first woke up in Andromeda,” Lexi explained, bringing the images up on her omni-tool, “and while you’ve got no brain damage from the fall or subsequent seizure much to my relief, we noted your implants have moved.”

“Which implants?” Sara asked, but she already knew the answer.

“Your biotic ones,” Lexi replied, “your SAM implants are intact.” 

“Great,” Sara mumbled. She noticed the windows into the med-bay were tinted, probably to give her some privacy.

“How did this happen?” Sara asked.

“Dr T’Perro, Dr Carlyle and I have theorised that the prolonged exposure to the Archon has caused the shift in your implants,” SAM popped up, “you have been experiencing rapid mood shifts and headaches along with slightly reduced performance for quite some time.”

“I don’t agree with reduced performance,” Peebee argued, “she’s fantastic!”

“Compared to readings before her encounter with the Archon while training in the combat simulator, Sara was performing with 4% better accuracy and 5.5%-,” SAM began.

“Enough!” Sara interrupted, “I don’t need to hear how shit I am from a machine thanks.”

“Apologies, Sara,” SAM replied.

“So, you guys think the headaches were to do with…” she couldn’t finish the sentence, _the_ _torture_ , she thought. 

“Yes,” Lexi explained, “while they seem to have been out of place for a while, it was only when you hit your head on the rock after the fall that the seizure occurred.”

“Can you remove them?” Peebee asked, piping up.

Lexi and Sara made eye contact with one another.

“No,” Sara answered, looking into the asari’s earnest eyes, “once we receive biotic implants they stay within the brain. After all, why would L2 users keep their shitty implants?”

“Good point,” Peebee’s brows creased.

“The only thing I know of is that some L2 users have their implants upgraded, but that wouldn’t work for me because I already have L3 implants,” Sara sighed.

“Unfortunately, you are correct. I know you’re not a biotic, but I would recommend not attempting to use them whatsoever,” Lexi began.

“I don’t even wear an amp-,” Sara interrupted.

“However,” Lexi took the conversation back, “SAM and I believe that you’ll now experience similar side effects to L2 users – given you’ve reported headaches for quite some time now.”

“L2 users can experience migraines and insanity if I remember correctly,” Sara frowned, “it’s not going to get that bad, right?”

Lexi grimaced, “we’re…unsure at this stage.”

Sara groaned, “Great – just great. My stupid father forces me to get these fucking implants when I’m not a biotic and _never_ showed biotic potential, and now they cause me to have all the side effects but none of the power of an L2!”

“Sara-,”Scott began, speaking for the first time.

“My fucking life, I tell you – it all keeps going wrong. Fuck this galaxy. Fuck Andromeda,” Sara ranted, throwing her legs to the side of the bed.

“Whoa, whoa,” Lexi held out an arm, “I can’t let you leave just yet.”

“Why not?” Sara snapped, glaring at Lexi.

“We are still assessing the effect on your brain, and you will need to be kept under observation,” SAM interjected.

“That’s right,” Lexi agreed, “we can’t place someone who has seizures alone. You’ll need to have someone with you at all times.”

“It’s not like I’m alone on this ship, it’s tiny.”

“I was thinking you may need to return to Meridian for monitoring…” Lexi began.

“NO!” Sara interrupted, the shout surprising even her, “no,” she said again more reasonably, “I refuse to go back to that prison.”

“Well, for now you need to stay here so I can monitor you.”

“Fine,” Sara said through gritted teeth, “sorry,” she added feeling embarrassed by her outburst.

“It’s quite alright,” Lexi replied.

“Where are we headed?” Sara asked timidly as Scott vacated the room. Peebee however set herself up in the cot next to Sara’s.

“The Nexus,” Lexi announced, “Scott has urgent business to attend, and you can also be assessed while you’re there.”

“Right.”

Lexi gave her a searching look before exiting the med-bay and Peebee stared after her, “hey…would you like some space?” she asked politely.

“Actually…yes please,” Sara mumbled and Peebee nodded, giving Sara’s shoulder a quick squeeze before following Lexi out of the med-bay. The only sound that greeted Sara’s ears was the gentle hum of the ship.

She grabbed at her head with its stupid implants that had completely affected the way her brain now worked. She hated everything, the very thought of everything going wrong just when it seemed to be going right stung her hard.

God only knew when she’d have another seizure.  

“Hang on – I thought I wasn’t supposed to be alone?” Sara wondered aloud and as if summoned, Scott re-entered the med-bay.

“Hey,” Scott muttered, running his fingers through his hair.

“Hey,” Sara replied dully. She watched him for a while as he paced up and down the med-bay, every now and then he’d stop, open his mouth as if he was going to speak and then continue to pace. Sara knew she had to wait him out.

“I can’t do this anymore,” he finally said.

“Do what?” Sara snapped with more force than she’d intended. She rubbed at her head; the headache was ever present again.  

“This,” Scott indicated her, waving his arms dramatically, “you…your whatever-the-fuck is going on with you.”

Sara cocked an eyebrow, “right; my ‘whatever-the-fuck’” she made air quotations, “sorry I’m such a failure for you Scott, really.”

Scott sucked in a breath, but opened and closed his mouth a few times and propped himself on the cot next to hers. Sara stared at her brother, wondering where all of this resentment seemed to be coming from – it’s not like she was doing this intentionally.

“You’re not…it’s just…” Scott paused and looked away, “I shouldn’t have pulled you from Meridian as soon as I did.”  

“What? _Why_? _What?_ ”

Scott didn’t answer, and Sara abandoned her rule of waiting him out as the anger pooled in her gut.

“Am I such a loser that I’m making you look bad in front of your cool friends?”

“No!” Scott snapped staring straight into her eyes.

“I’m just so _not cool_ in front your awesome squad with your awesome advisors and everyone worshipping you? Don’t want your seizing, anxiety ridden sister tampering your spotlight?”

“That’s not it at all!” Scott’s voice rose to a shout, “I just…I don’t know” he buried his face in his hands.

“Scott,” Sara said simply, every nerve ending going numb, “when I went into that stasis pod…this was not what I imagined was waiting on the other side. Have you actually thought about how I feel?”

Scott opened his mouth to argue but Sara spoke over him, “I woke up in a hospital bed being poked and prodded by doctors, unable to be trusted on my own. Unable to do anything. I found out my only family lied to me about _everything._ Just as I make progress, I’m kidnapped and tortured by this horrid fucking alien. This has been hard; I don’t think you understand that.”  

“ _You think you’ve had it hard?”_ Scott asked shrilly, “While you were sleeping I was running around doing all of the hard work fighting kett and other disgusting creatures, and dealing with utter fucking nonsense!” Scott snapped back, “I died _three times_! One of those times SAM _killed me_! This hasn’t been easy for me either!”

Sara glared at her brother, her brows furrowing, “what did you just say to me?”

“Huh?”

“ _Sleeping_?” Sara’s voice raised an octave.

Scott’s eyes widened in horror at the realisation of what he had just said, he opened his mouth but again Sara cut across him, “get out.”

“This is my ship!” Scott ordered, getting to his feet.

“GET OUT,” Sara screamed at him, and Scott flinched at her words. Without a word, he backed out of the med bay, the doors snapping shut behind him. When he was gone from the room Sara lost her nerve, and sobbed. The tears spilt down her cheeks.

It was times like this that she needed someone; but the two people whom she’d turn to were no longer options. Scott was usually her first choice, but that was not an option right now.

_I miss Goya._

And again, she wasn’t a choice either. She was either dead because of reapers or some other cause, or had long moved on.

She curled into a ball as much as her injuries allowed, and cried. She felt like a small child, but she couldn’t help it.

She just wanted comfort.

xXx

_Sara tested the weight of the sniper rifle in her hands after being given one. She turned it over, examining every angle and noting it wasn’t in the best condition._

_“It’s a second hand Viper,” Alec Ryder explained. Her father looked as intimidating as ever, even dressed in casual gear. Sara couldn’t help but note that he wore black slacks and an N7 T-Shirt, “I want you to hit that.”_

_Her father was pointing to a very distant target which Sara could only spot by holding the scope to her eye and gazing at the bullseye._

_“Do I shoot?”_

_“Yep,” Alec replied. Sara raised an eyebrow at her father’s apparent nonchalant energy but shrugged and while looking through the scope, pulled the trigger. The gun jumped back in her hands and butted into her shoulder._

_Alec pulled out a pair of binoculars and stared at the target, “not bad. Want me to show you a pointer?”_

_“Sure,” Sara said, handing him the gun. He took it from her and pointed it at the target._

_“Right – when I shoot with a sniper rifle, I time it to my breathing.”_

_“That sounds…very inefficient,” Sara remarked._

_“You won’t miss,” Alec replied curtly and Sara fell silent. She took the binoculars from her father but before looking for the bullseye stared at his technique. He had perfect posture as he stood with the rifle, and Sara watched his chest rise and fall and as it fell he gently squeezed the trigger. Sara looked to the target and sure enough, he had a perfect bullseye._

_“Take the time to steady your shot, and time it to your breaths. As you get more confident, you’ll be faster.”_

_“Thank you sir,” Sara said, taking the sniper rifle off of him and giving it another try. She held the scope to her eye and had the crosshairs over the bullseye. She took a deep, shuddering breath and then blew it out through her mouth, noting how her body stilled before the next breath. Holding her finger over the trigger, she took a few deep breaths before on the fifth exhale she squeezed the trigger as she had seen her father do._

_“Not bad,” Alec admitted and Sara stared through the scope to see she was a fraction of a centimetre off of her father’s shot. She looked at him through the corner of her eye, and could’ve sworn a hint of a smile had crossed his face – but when she looked his usual frown was present._

_“Keep practising,” Alec told her, and Sara nodded bringing the scope to her eye again. As she concentrated on her breathing again, a firm hand came onto her shoulder and gave it a squeeze and Sara looked to see her father then walk away._

“Sara?”

Sara shook her head, pulling herself from the memory. She wasn’t on the Citadel with her father learning how to shoot – she was in the med-bay on the Tempest in Andromeda and an asari was standing in the doorway.

“Oh, Lexi…” Sara fell back into her pillow and stared at the ceiling.

“Bad dream?” Lexi asked, beginning a medical examination – taking in Sara’s pulse and blood pressure.

“No, no,” Sara replied, “I was just…lost in a memory.”

“Ah, I understand,” Lexi said softly before turning to one of her terminals and typing information. The med-bay doors opened to reveal Peebee and Drack standing in the doorway. Peebee had a big grin on her face at the sight of her while Drack looked as surly as ever.

“Sara! Ya feeling better?” Peebee asked, immediately plonking herself onto Sara’s cot and patting her forearm.

“Yeah, now,” Sara smiled, “I…don’t think I’ve had another seizure either.”

“No, you haven’t - much to my relief,” Lexi explained. Drack leaned against the wall casually; maybe he was worried if he sat on the cot it would give way.

“Scott gave us an update on what happened kid,” Drack started, his eyes softening as he spoke, “you scared me that’s for sure.”

“Drack c’mon you’re not scared of anything surely!” Sara joked, but Drack did not join in on the laughter.

“Even when you’re my age some things still scare you. Losing any of my kids – that scares me…” Drack trailed off and Sara felt her eyes sting for the briefest of seconds.

“Oh…well…thanks Drack,” Sara said in a voice unlike her own, before snapping her attention back to Peebee.

Everyone’s omni-tools blipped and Sara looked at hers.

_Crew – shore leave for three hours – Pathfinder._

“’Scuse me, I have to go visit my granddaughter,” Drack nodded at them all before departing from the med-bay.

“Well, that’s nice,” Sara commented, “but I guess I’ll be seeing the doctor.”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Lexi said, “wait here a moment,” and she departed the med-bay, leaving Sara and Peebee alone.

“How are the crew?” Sara asked casually, unsure of if she should be getting ready to leave or not.

“What do you mean?” Peebee asked with a confused look on her face, “haven’t they visited?”

“Aside from my brother who I’m not speaking to right now, you and Drack just now…nope no one else.”

“Okay?” Peebee asked, her eye-ridge rising in confusion, “I thought for sure Jaal-,”

“Yeah, well we both thought wrong,” Sara snapped, instantly regretting taking the defensive with Peebee, “sorry, it’s not your fault. Guess he’s still not interested after his stupid row with Scott.”

“Maybe I could try and have a word?”

“No! It’s just - Jaal and I are both adults, when he comes around then we can talk about it. It’s probably some stupid angaran custom but still, he should be familiar enough with humans by now to know what the heck is going on.”

“Agreed,” Peebee nodded, “and also you’re not speaking to Scott?” but before Sara could answer Lexi returned and handed Sara a pile of clothes and dimmed the windows.

“Thanks Lexi,” Sara said in a quiet voice while she pulled her clothing on, careful not to show Peebee all of her private bits. When at last she was respectably covered she pushed out of the bed, a little worried as she hadn’t actually gotten up since her seizure.

“It’s okay you don’t have to hang around me,” Sara said to Peebee as the asari was on one side of her, lifting an arm around her shoulders.

“Nexus Schmexus,” Peebee shrugged, “I’d rather help a friend out.”

“Oh, thank you,” Sara smiled at her and the three of them made their way out of the ship. Sara felt comfortable enough to walk without assistance but wished the pair of them would stop hovering around her like she was going to fall down at any second.

Peebee waited in the waiting room while Sara and Lexi went in with the Nexus doctor. There were a bunch of lovely aliens of various species, and it included two humans – one of which was treating Sara.

“Do you mind if I bring a student in with me?” she asked.

“That’s fine,” Sara replied without thinking, and the doctor beckoned an angara into the room. It took Sara by surprise that the angara looked very much like Jaal – but he was more of a bluish purple, but he had the same striking blue eyes that most angara had, it unnerved her slightly.

“This is one of our angaran doctors who is training with us to get a handle on the various species,” she explained.

“Bit different when you go from one species to several I can imagine,” Lexi laughed and the angara laughed too.

They went through the usual check-up procedure before Lexi showed the human and angara Sara’s scans. Sara sat back, this sort of stuff didn’t faze her as much as it used to.

“ _I don’t want to!” Sara snapped, folding her arms over her chest and glaring into her father’s face._

_“You have to,” Alec replied, copying Sara and staring at her with his arms folded, “you don’t have a choice.”_

_“Ow!”_

_Sara turned to see Scott receiving his injections, clutching a teddy in both arms with his eyes tight shut as the salarian nurse administered the needles. Sara winced; she didn’t want anything like that near her._

_“Your brother is being brave,” Alec tried to be helpful, “see how well he’s doing?”_

_But to Sara, Scott didn’t seem brave at all. Even as her dad said it, she could see the tears rolling down Scott’s cheeks and his body tensing as the next injection went in. Sara winced as Scott did and turned away, “I’m not!”_

_“You’re not what?”_

_“I’m not brave! If being brave involves needles…NO!”_

_Alec placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and guided her toward the large windows in the waiting room which overlooked the Citadel. Sara loved seeing The Presidium and the many passing skycars go by and the gentle hum of it all._

_Alec bent to her level, his eyes meeting hers, “one day…one day you’ll be wishing that this was the worst thing in the world.”_

_“But it is…” Sara went to interrupt, but Alec cut over her._

_“Trust me. You’re six years old. Right now, your biggest problems are needles and homework and friends. It seems hard now, because it is. Your problems are valid for your age. But when you’re twenty-six,” Alec stared out of the window before speaking, “you’ll look back and wish this was the biggest problem in the world.”_

_“Do you promise?”_

_He looked at her, his eyes open and earnest, “yes Sara, I promise.”_

_“Plus you get candy!” Scott came bounding into the waiting room, his eyes red and puffy but happily sucking a lollipop and showing off his blasto-themed band-aid._

_“I guess I gotta be brave,” Sara muttered to herself._

_She wasn’t sure she heard it, but she could’ve sworn she heard her father whisper, “that’s my girl.”_

“Sara?”

The human doctor was waving a hand in front of her face and Sara snapped back to reality, “hmm sorry?”

“Are you alright?” the doctor asked, a quiver of worry in her voice.

“Yeah, I’m good. I was just remembering something from my childhood…anyway.”

“Well, based on your brain scans and what has happened I have cleared you to return to the Tempest and remain with the crew,” the doctor began.

“So no hospitals or Meridian?” Sara asked hopefully, not daring to get her hopes up.

“No,” the doctor smiled and Sara sighed in relief, “however you’ll need constant monitoring with Lexi and I’m taking you off of the combat team until we can be sure your seizures are under control.”

“We’ll be doing simulation trials,” Lexi explained, “putting you in a combat simulator at first and seeing how you perform. The long-term goal is to have you back in combat but not right now.”

“Right,” Sara nodded. While it wasn’t ideal, she was relieved she didn’t have to go back to Meridian and be shackled to a hospital bed again. When they returned to the waiting room they found Peebee playing a game of cards with symbols and pictures that Sara did not recognise, before turning, “news?”

“No Meridian!” Sara chirped happily without thinking, causing several people to turn with puzzled expressions on their faces. Sara blushed and the three of them exited onto the sunny Nexus.

“Well in light of this glorious news I’m going to go and get a drink!” Peebee said, rubbing her hands together, “toodles!” and before Sara could say anything she skipped off to the bar. Sara bade Lexi a goodbye and stood awkwardly in the atrium, unsure of what to do.

A tap on her shoulder made her wheel around so fast she almost pulled her leg out.

A very familiar pair of eyes met hers.

“We need to talk.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone I hope this chapter isn't too canon breaking! A bit of history on this fic, this chapter has been written since I first started writing! It's been waiting a long, long time to make its appearance yet here it is! Once again I've drawn out the DRAMAAAAAA but hey it wouldn't be a slow burn without it right? 
> 
> Also isn't Peebee the best? I have Peebee clinging to Sara because she sees Sara as an outsider, like herself. Someone who is struggling to find her place, just as she did. Also, I just love Peebee! :D 
> 
> Also, WHO DO THOSE EYES BELONG TO! I'll leave you all in suspense!

**Author's Note:**

> To clarify the major decisions I've made in my playthrough: 
> 
> \- Scott is a biotic, while Sara is tech-minded  
> \- Eos is made into a military minded settlement  
> \- The kett facility on Voeld is destroyed against Jaal's wishes  
> \- Drack’s scouts are saved instead of Raeka, Hayjer is pathfinder  
> \- Sarissa is pathfinder  
> \- Avitus is pathfinder  
> \- Sloane remains the leader of Kadara, Reyes was shot in the shoulder  
> \- The drive core is given to Morda and she is made ambassador  
> \- Akksul is shot and killed  
> \- Kallinda is killed
> 
> Other changes not in 'canon' include Gil not having a child with Jill and Scott doesn't meet Jaal's family.


End file.
